Wet way

After work I headed over to the running store to meet up for the Dash n Dine.  The Dash n Dine is something the running club does during the summer once a month.  Basically a bunch of people show up, go for a short run and then return for food and drinks.  I actually had never attended one before, I guess because of always having to go home to let the dogs out in the past. I actually wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to go last night either based on the weather.  On the way to the store I was driving towards pitch black clouds with lightning flashing down on a regular basis.

When I got to the store I was handed a signed  Eagles retro mini-helmet.  The helmet was from Tommy, a guy I met via the running club.  The helmet by itself was cool but it also was signed by Ron Jaworski!

Tommy has hooked me up before, giving me an old Eagles program he had from the 70’s.  You ask how he has these connections?  Tommy used to be a trainer for the Redskins for a long time during their glory years.  He even has a Super Bowl ring.

Tommy also happened to show up for the event.  I thanked him for the helmet. It’s really a generous thing for him to hook me up with Birds gear.

So we had a good crowd gathering, we headed out into the still foreboding looking weather.  The run was back into an area called Freedom Park, somewhere I have passed many, many times but never checked out.  It’s a cool place with a boardwalk that winds through a scenic natural background.

I wound up running with Todd and Jake, two guys that are much better runners than I am but I wanted to see if I could at least keep pace over a shorter distance.  Of course it started to rain shortly into the run.  It was light at first, it turned into a deluge later.

One of the guys had brought his dog along.  Once we got on the boardwalk part of the run he let the dog off leash, I am not quite sure why.  The dog had a great time running ahead of us on the boardwalk.  He would wait for us to somewhat catch up and then dash ahead.  He even was nice enough to leave a brown smelly speed bump in the middle of the boardwalk at one point.

Eventually a young 13 year old kid that was running close by corralled the dog and held it for the owner to releash.

So I was doing a decent job of keeping up with Todd and Jake but I definitely was working harder than I anticipated for what was supposed to be a fun run.  My right knee started to bother me more and more as we kept going.  To keep pace I needed to extend my stride more than I normally would.  This was also the third time I had run in the last four days, much more than my normal one day a week running schedule.

Finally the pain reached the threshold that I didn’t want to ignore, I told them to go ahead without me with probably less than 10 minutes to go.  I limp walked for a minute or so, annoyed that I stopped.  I then started back up running with a conservative stride which was easier on the knee.  The knee pain could have also been from running in my gym sneakers instead of my normal NB 1080’s. We ran farther than probably anyone else in the group so I was the last one back.

It was still raining hard at that point.  Everyone was huddled under the overhang of the shopping center.  By the time I got there a lot of the primary food of pizza and burritos had been consumed.  I managed to snag one slice of pizza before it was gone.  I then rounded that off with some nacho chips and a few bites of Ali’s burrito she snagged earlier.

Although there was free beer being served which I would have loved to take more advantage of, I instead slammed down two glasses of water before drinking one Miller Lite.  I didn’t want any return of the bizarre gout like symptoms I experienced the last time I rehydrated after a run exclusively with beer. Even with my precautions, when I took a leak when I got home my urine was really dark, a sign of dehydration.

I was totally soaked from running in the rain.  I looked like I just jumped in the gulf.  Luckily I ran shirtless so I had something to put back on.  I just happened to “win” a singlet as a door prize as well that I actually wound up wearing home.

I had a good time at the Dash n Dine and hope to get to attend them on a regular basis.

My knee today aches enough that doing my normal squat routine at the gym may be in question.