Hopes Dashed! Must make new goals

Well I was so excited after my visit with the physical therapist last week that I went out and ran a bunch. The weather has been fantastic and I felt great everytime, until about mile 6. Then my hip started hurting again. So I went back to the PT and she recommended cutting back on mileage, on building up very slowly, even more slowly than the typically recommended 10% per week rule. I'm pretty bad at math but I was able to fairly quickly figure out that I wouldn't have enough time to build up to the Missoula Marathon in July.

Now I've done most of the route of the MM a couple of times (and the whole route once), and while it is nice as far as a road run goes, it's not that great compared to other fantastic runs (ie. on trails) that can be done around here. The main reasons I wanted to do it were to be a part of this great running wave that is sweeping Missoula (especially with Runner's World magazine having bestowed upon the MM the title of Best Marathon this year), and because I wanted to do it better than last year (faster and with less pain afterwards). Alas, that goal will not be acheived this year.

However, if all goes well and my hip heals up and I keep increasing my mileage by painfully slow increments, I should be able to do a marathon in September, and I've had my eye on the Two Bear Marathon in Whitefish ever since Jim ran it two years ago. At least half of this marathon is on trails. And the more I run, the more I realize that this is the kind of running that I am most interested in.

Another advantage of figuring out this hip problem of mine is that once I do get it all worked out, I should be able to run longer AND faster, since I will be running more efficiently than ever before. So, I am excited about the future.

And as for the Missoula Marathon, I think I will volunteer and cheer everyone else on.