In Search of . . . A Halfway Decent Run: nOg Run 3/14

Nimoy is such a creepy dude . . .
God, I have a crazy non-Star Trek related Man Crush

Anyone out there remember that old TV show, In Search of . . ., hosted by Leonard Nimoy during the years between Star Trek the TV show and the movies?  I watched In Search of . . . when it was in syndication an Looovvved it!   The show was a bunch of mini "documentaries" about controversial and paranormal X-files worthy stuff,  mysterious historical events and personalities, and your random myths and legends.  Basically, In Search Of . . .was the 70's kick-ass cool forerunner of just about half the crap shows on the History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and NatGeo!

Now, I didn't just launch into this so I could post the Awesome picture of Nimoy that I found!  I bring In Search of . . . up because after two utterly wretched runs, I am left to wonder just what the heck is going on with me?  Granted, I have made several poor choices that have contributed to the misery of these runs, but two weeks ago I was feeling all Rockstar and now am feeling very not Rockstar!  I keep thinking I did too much prior to my race or I didn't do enough last week.  Also, last week was awful at work, and after the earthquake in Japan, the week just became really stressful.  Hiroko's entire family is in Japan along with her friends as well as mine.  We spent most of Thursday and Friday contacting people, luckily everyone was alright.  However, the stresses of the week were weighing heavily on my mind during those crappy weekend miles, and by the nOg Run on Monday, I am most assuredly In Search of . . . A halfway decent run.

The weather was nice but a bit breezy, and my right foot was cranky.  The tendon on the bottom of my foot has begun to flare up again, which has caused me to get proactive with treatment.  The foot doesn't hurt while running.  Instead, it flares up while as I sit at work.   Rolling it on a tennis ball during the day helps alleviate it.  But, it was still worrisome by the time I arrived at the nOg.  I wasn't expecting the wind and was feeling the chill a little more than I wanted but was confident that it wouldn't matter by the end of the first mile.  Hiro was there but was going to be with a friend of her hers that was attending for the first time, which meant I would be running on my own.  I didn't mind because running alone allowed me to focus on my own run and not worry about anyone else, which I need after two bad runs. 

This run got off to a rocky start with nothing feeling good.  I didn't feel horrid, but I had no real push in place where I usually run well.  I couldn't get into anything near a groove and messed up my splits on Old Bob at stop light when I hit the lap button instead of the pause.  By the one mile mark, I was running strong but fighting it. 

The second mile wasn't any better or worse, just more of the same.  My legs weren't dead, but had no jump to them at all.  I struggled on and tried to avoid looking at Old Bob.  Several, skinny fast dude blew right by me during this mile which pissed me off and gave motivated me to keep my pace.

The last mile, was more of the same, but I did pick up the pace a bit as I got passed twice by skinny people.  I was just about to re-pass one of them when I got stuck on the wrong side of a traffic light.  After crossing, the second one blew past me, and I pushed to stay on him, but we were so close to the end of the run it would have been pointless to try to "prove my manhood" and re-pass.

After finishing the run, I looked at Old Bob, who read: 2.86 in 24:53.25 at an 8:41pace.  I was more than shocked.  Nothing felt close to good with this run.  Everything was off just a little, yet my time was pretty good in comparison to my other nOg runs.  Someone please call Nimoy because I am In Search Of . . . Answers!  I got my halfway decent run without ever really feeling halfway decent . . . how does that shit happen?