Day One, Run One

Not actually my first run of the year. Probably my fourth or fifth, but my first since signing up for the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon. I'm most committed to running when I have a run looming on the horizon. My hope is that keeping track of it here will help motivate me too.

Last year (2004), I trained and ran in the Marine Corps Marathon. That was my first marathon and I can say that I'm glad I did it. Washington DC is a great place to run. There's so much to see. Plus, it was on Halloween, warm (possibly a little too warm) and many of the 16,000+ runners were in costume. It made the Kermit-the-Frog guy look kinda normal.

My regrets with the MCM is that I didn't start training earlier and that I wasn't more consistent earlier.

My concerns are always with injury and a flare up of iliotibial band syndrome. Last year to combat it, I tried a yoga DVD called, Yoga for Athletes. I really found it helpful because I'm pretty bad about stretching. Normally I used to stretch for about two minutes before I left for the run. The yoga DVD helped a lot because it stretched me for 20 minutes to an hour every couple of days. At minimum, I was injury free.

I was able to run longer and longer without any IT-band problems. The place where I ran into problems was surfaces that sloped to the right. It's only my right knee that causes problems.

The Run
It was 27° and very sunny. There were some slippery spots, but I stayed off my ass. It wasn't a fast run, but it's a start.

Location	Miles	Hours	Minutes	Seconds	Pace
Royal Oak, MI	2.8		25	57	09:16