Ok, so I hate to try to combine multiple topics into one blog post, but I’m also not ambitious enough to do separate posts for all of these either. So bear with me as I try to make them all seem somehow related.

So you may remember me mentioning a couple of weeks ago that my 15 miler was less than ideal. Pretty painful in fact. Something I didn’t mention was that around mile 8 I had a extremely sharp pain right in the middle of my back. Not good. I’ve heard of runners going to the chiropractor and figured if I ever had a sign of telling me I should go that was probably it.

I found a chiropractor that also does sports/physical therapy that my insurance covered, so I went in. A quick x-ray showed a nice little curve right at the spot where I felt the pain. Actually, to be honest, I nearly freaked out when I saw it. I didn’t know that it was normal for people’s spines to not be perfectly straight all the time, but the doc seemed fine with it, so I played along. We also talked about my IT Band and how that’s also normal for runners. Or at least normal for people who find running for hours at a time to be both recreational and productive.

So a few cracks, bends, stretches, and knuckle massages later, I was on my way. Now with my new rejuvenated self, I was ready to tackle the 20 miler the following weekend.

Compared to the 15 miles from the week before 20 miles was fre-ack-in’ awesome. On the previous run I figured out that I didn’t need the carbs and energy as much as I just needed food. I was hungry! To fight my ravenous gargling stomach I used an old strategy from back when I used to go hiking at Enchanted Rock…trail mix! In this case, sweet cajun trail mix to be exact. I found that the energy gels were great but didn’t last very long. The trail mix is a nice way to just get food in to not make me feel so stinkin’ hungry. I used this “fuel” again for a 12 miler last weekend and it went beautifully. I think I officially have my race day strategy in place.

In other unrelated topics, for Thanksgiving we all went down to the family ranch in Jarrell Texas and then on to San Antonio for my 10 year high school reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun, and a lot of awkward. You know the feeling when you’re in the grocery store and you think you recognize someone, but you’re not sure…and then if you do remember them, you’re not sure if they remember you? Take that, and then multiply it by the other hundred people in the room, and that’s what it was like. And I definitely got a “Hey buddy!” pretty early on into it. It’s ok, I didn’t remember his name either.

So yep, pretty fun little weekend. I got to eat a lot of food and then go run and burn it all off. Here are some of the magical moments captured…

Carb loading before 12 miles. Ok…I didn’t eat all the waffles.

Just hanging out with the bull on the ranch.

Ok this picture was actually pretty random. As if you couldn’t tell from the non-shoulder hugging awkward standing positions from everyone.

Boom. Boom. Pow.