A 13-Mile Run

I broke in my new huaraches by walking 3 miles and running
another 3 in them yesterday. It felt great! But this morning
my right foot PF started to make itself felt: my feet need
more time to get stronger and my running style to improve.
For this morning's run, I decided to switch back to my good
old Merrell.

The sky turned from dark to a dull lead, which reminded me
of the bleak Canadian winters. California temperature is mild,
of course, and the breeze pleasant. Feeling thankful, I headed
to the Bay with a half bottle of water.

I kept an easy pace at around 9:00 until I met E and W at
mile 8. W told me that K was bothered by his knee. "Why are
runners plagued with all these problems?" I wondered. I've
swum for 15 years and the only problem I got was a slight
swimmer's ear. My son has been swimming since he
was 3 and got no problem so far. Why running is such a
delicate art if we are born to run? For the past several
months, my search for answers turned up several hints:
running shoes (McDougal, Barefoot Ted, and to some extent
Dr. Davis, etc.), running form (Jurek, e.g., who claimed
that the right cadence sorts everything else out, ChiRunning,
etc.), and, related, biomechanics (Dicharry, e.g.). I've been
attacking my own ITBS and PF from these angles. So far, I've
been lucky: my ITBS seems gone and my PF has much abated.
Let's see if I can completely get rid of the PF.

The amazing 60-yr-old W pulled away with his "marathon pace"
and E and I tried to keep up and my pace went to around
8:00. W opened such a lead that we could see him up the
hills in the front and back down to meet us. By that time, I
said goodbye to E and headed home--I need to put something
into my son's stomach before his swim meet today.

Overall, 13.1 miles at 8:46.