25 June 2008 - Mt. Marcy, Lake Placid, and other stuff

On the 13th, the lovely Francine and I spent about 9 hours hiking up and down Mt. Marcy, the highest mountain in New York. 14.8 miles up and down over some really rough trails.

On the 14th, we ran the Lake Placid Marathon. With my knee not feeling bad unless I pushed it, I decided to take it really easy. Meanwhile, Francine ran a really good marathon, taking away an age group award.

After I got back, I decided to go see Terence for some more physical therapy. The following is exerpted from my newsletter:

OK, I told you my knee was goofy lately. Well, Terence has all the ligiments and stuff around it feeling pretty good now, but when he was twisting it around the other day I was feeling some pretty interesting pain. He smiled at me and said, "Let's get Ed in here and schedule an MRI."

So, it's looking like next Wednesday morning at 2:30 I'll be getting my knee scanned. And if it needs fixing, I'm going to get it fixed.

I watched an arena football game on TV once. About the only thing that impressed me about it was that one of the players had arthroscopic surgery on his knee on Wednesday, and on Saturday he was playing football. I was encouraged by that, though it was pointed out to me that no one is going to pay me many thousands of dollars to be back out running marathons the next weekend, regardless of how well it turns out.

Of course, worrying about it would be premature. The MRI might just tell me that I need to heal for a couple more weeks and quit being such a wimp. I hope that's the case.

I'm still planning on running in Carrollton, MI the end of July. Maybe it will be an early-start walk instead. My marathon streak is at 64 months in a row now. I'd hate to have to start over again.


I Threw My Brooks Shoes Away in Lake Placid
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not because I didn't like them, however. They were great shoes. You know that Brooks makes the great race shirts that have become a tradition at our marathon. You may also notice that everyone on our staff is wearing Brooks shoes as well.

The shoes I was wearing were my Brooks Adrenalines. They're the same shoes I was wearing at the FINISH LINE last October when I was shaking hands and hugging a lot of you as you crossed the line.

Then, in November and December, I wore them for seven marathons across seven continents. Starting in Beirut, Lebanon; then to Atlanta; Florence, Italy; Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Wanganui, New Zealand; Vina del Mar, Chile; and finally in the Patriot Hills in Antarctica. The shoes had a LOT of miles on them, traveling all the way around the world.

I wore them at Disney World in January for Goofy's Challenge, completing both a half and a full marathon the same weekend. And for five more marathons since then.

Last weekend in Lake Placid, the lovely Francine and I spent nine hours on Saturday hiking up and down Mt. Marcy, the highest point in New York. I was wearing my Adrenalines. Then on Sunday, my old friends were with me for their final marathon, as we ran a beautiful course in Lake Placid.

Muddy, well-worn, with a dozen or so marathons under their laces, they found their final resting place somewhere in New York.

But don't worry--I'll be wearing a new pair when I greet you at the FINISH LINE in October.