Quick Update

Another run in the books last night, 3 miles on the trails (logging road) near my house. In some respects it went better than the night before and in some it didn’t go as well. On the good side, I felt better overall and didn’t have much trouble out of my hamstring. On the negative side, I felt my hip a little throughout, and while it wasn’t bad, it was definitely there. Like I wrote in my entry yesterday, I don’t expect to be totally pain free while I work my way back into things, but I don’t know if I’m quite ready yet or not. I may get gradually better over the next week or so until I’m completely pain free, and I may need a few more days off in order to get there. Either way, at least I’m making progress. I’m just gonna play it by ear, erring on the side of caution, and see what happens. I’ll try again tonight and take it from there.

Changing subjects, congrats to local runner Tim Smith and his teammate Andrew Benford on making the US Mountain Running Teams. This is Tim’s second year in a row on the Junior team, and Benford, who is from WV and qualified for the Senior team with a second place finish at the Cheyenne Cañon Mountain Race in CO a couple weeks ago, is the first athlete in US history to make both the Junior and Senior US Mountain Running Teams. They’ll represent the US in Italy on September 6th. Tim finished 5th overall last year, the highest placing ever by a US athlete, and led the American team to a 4th place finish, and Benford finished 12th overall when he was on the team as a Junior back in 2006, so hopefully both will have great races again this year. I know Steve Taylor, who coaches both at the University of Richmond and has helped me a lot with my own running over the years, will definitely have them ready to roll. I look forward to seeing the results.