No race for me today :( I don't feel like running is in my immediate future. My leg is still very sore. On a happy note, BT kicked ass once again on race day. My man Dills simply killed the amateur field at the Barking Dog Duathlon. KILODAVE also represented well. He not only looked good on yet another fancy bike, but took the 3rd spot in his very competitive age group... But today it was all about Mark Dillard! He ran with the leaders on the first 5k run leg and smashed the field on the bike opening the lead on some very heavy talent and then putting in another solid 5k split to win. I would have loved to mix it up today, but the truth is... Dills might have spanked me! For an old guy he sure is fast! Oh, Top 3 amateurs today were all over 40! I'd like to think that if I could have raced, I would have made it the top 4 amateurs were over 40! Note: Only 7 elite racers beat Dills today! He was that good! WOWZERS

This shot was stolen from Katie's blog (she is the superb photographer)... taken shortly after finishing the Colorado Marathon! How rad is that sign?! Thank you for being there: Katie, Bridget and Sara! As Bridget likes to say, you girls put the "RAD" back in Colorado!

A poem to share on this bleak rainy day:

Well I'm feeling a little more "normal" today. My calves hurt like the dickens and my quads are screaming (in fact, my calves are worse today). I'm 99.9% sure that I will not be doing the Barking Dog Duathlon on Saturday. I am going to need more time recover for sure. The Meralgia Paresthetica region of my thigh is tight, but I am not feeling any burning or tingling just fatigue. During my easy ride last night I could feel tension and a tired sensation there but no burning. I think if I'm patient, this thing will just work itself out. In the meantime there are politics and shit to worry about!! For instance: George W. Bush. The Worst President in the history of the United States. This is not an arguable point - this is fact. I would go as far as saying the guy is a full on traitor and is guilty of crimes against humanity and more! Perhaps debatable, but only if one is blind and sports a double digit IQ. How did it come to this? Why? Well, it is our own damn fault. All of us, the citizens of this grand experiment known as democracy. We let our guard down, we didn't pay attention to the details, we forgot how to read, we watched Fixed (Fox) News and believed that a stain on a dress was more important than a rational and humane foreign policy and a rational and humane domestic policy... Yep we were all just too plain busy "Putting food on our family" to read George W. Bush's resume. Shame on us. And isn't it ironic that shortly before 9-ll GWB forgot to read the Presidential Daily Brief that stated clearly that Bin Laden was determined to attack (instead taking another much needed vacation)? Oh yeah George no read; but that is another story. Yep, we hired this guy... if you believe the media. We voted for this man two times. WE HIRED HIM. No background check, no lie detectors, no aptitude screening nothing... Hell, we didn't even read the resume! His offical college transcripts are out there but they are not very impressive. Yale, Harvard... GWB was a beneficiary of some arcane form of affirmative action for the rich and connected known as Legacy Admission; which for some reason Bush now opposes. Perhaps he read his resume! You should too. Would you hire this person to run your company? USACO Did! OUCH that has got to hurt! George W. Bush Resume Past work experience: !>Ran for congress and lost !>Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie. !>Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. !>Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox. !>With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. !>Accomplishments: Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history. !>Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court. Accomplishments as president: !>Attacked and took over two countries. !>Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury. !>Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. !>Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. !>Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. !>First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. !>First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. !>First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. !>After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. !>Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history. !>In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. !>Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history. !>Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period. !>Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history. !>Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. !>Signed more laws and executive orders circumventing the Constitution than any president in US history. !>Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. !>Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have. !>Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans. !>Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. (http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/) !>Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history. !>My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history. !>Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleezza Rice has an Chevron oil tanker named after her). !>Had more states to simultaneously go bankrupt than any president in the history of the United States. !>Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world. !>Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States. !>Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. !>First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. !>First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board. !>Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history. !>Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. !>Withdrew from the World Court of Law. !>Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions. !>First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections). !>All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations. !>My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation). !>Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history. !>First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community. !>First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1) !>First US president to establish a secret shadow government. !>Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history). !>With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years. !>Fist US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability. !>First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea. !>Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. !>Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts. !>Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'. !>Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects. !>In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States. !>Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history. !>In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war. !>Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down. Records and References: !>At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available). !>AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war. !>Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. !>All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. !>Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review. !>For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.) --Thanks to Kelley Kramer for compiling this fantastic list of achievements!

Note... Every Garmin wearer that I have talked to had the course about .2 miles long! WTF? Meralgia Paresthetica I had a Personal Best time in my marathon yesterday but at what cost? I don't know. Yes, I am disappointed in not going under 2:50 but I came close and I hung on and finished in the worst pain that I have ever felt during a marathon. I was running with my friend Steve Krebs (an ER doc) and my other friend Ben (an F4 coach); the early miles went well and we were just gliding through the canyon. Before the race I was concerned about my right calf because it was tight and I was afraid of it progressing but for the first 10 miles it was just a nuisance... the 3 of us rolled into 13.1 pretty much together (Steve was pushing and Ben and I backed off just a bit)... Ben and I crossed the half way point at about 1:23:05 but I was concerned already. I felt tightness developing in my thighs (especially my left) and this seemed very early in the race. I asked Ben if he felt any tightness in his legs and he said, no. By mile 15 I was beginning to worry big time. I just wanted to get out of the canyon and into some rolling terrain. I would love an uphill just to change the motion of my stride. My thigh, on the outside near my hip was really starting to hurt. I noticed that it was burning too. By mile 16 it was on FIRE!!! I was trying to massage it as I ran. I was scared and began to believe that I would not finish this race and if I did I would be walking. I did not want to walk for 10 miles -- I'd hitch a ride rather than walk. I told Ben that I was in trouble and he tried to be encouraging and told me to relax and just to keep running. I protested and was about to start walking but I didn't primarily because I noticed that Ben slowed down just a bit so that I could keep up with him. I continued running. Two miles more pass and we are approaching the only real uphill (Bagel Hill) and I notice that although my splits had slowed, they were still in the 6:40 range and if I could handle the pain, if it didn't get any worse, I could keep going. As I approached Bagel hill I practiced my Bobby McGee running uphill techniques that I learned in a seminar and marched on. Ben said he was going to stop for water. I kept going figuring that he would catch me and pass me before too long anyway (Ben beat me by a minute at the Canyonlands Half Marathon this year). Pretty soon I was approaching the 20 mile mark. I was really surprised that I was still moving. I looked at my watch and I thought that I still have a chance to reach my goal of sub-2:50. I hit 20 miles at 2:07:45 and if by some miracle I could do a 42 minute 10k in this condition, I would make it! Soon enough though, I was back to wanting to stop. I have never felt this type of pain before. Did I tear something? I couldn't figure out what was going on. I had all of the normal and worse than normal soreness that is typical at this stage of the race, but the fire in my thigh/hip area was NOT NORMAL. 5 miles to go and am I doing permanent damage to myself? 5 miles to go and I HAVE to finish. I'm tired now. really tired. I make it to 23 slowing to a 6:59 mile pace. I am losing the time that I put in the bank quickly and realize that it is unlikely that I will go <2:50. I still have a chance at a PR and I do my best to hang on. Funny thing is at the California Marathon in December, I had a similar race... not because of an injury but because I blew up. I was on pace their through 23 miles and then fell apart completely (still PR'd: 2:53:38). Today, although it would be a similar death march to the finish I wasn't slowing down as much as in Cali. My last 3 miles where all in the low 7:00s and I rolled into Old Town Fort Collins knowing I would PR but not reach my real goal. As I got near the finish I saw Kati and Sarah and Bridget with really cool "DICK DIME" signs and I think I heard Jason (Greyhound) yell, "Go Dime" as I ran into the finish chute, so that cheered me up. When I got to the finish, I saw my friend Steve (2:49:59), the doc, and told him what I felt. He asked a few questions and immediately he told me that it was Meralgia Paresthetica and it is not commonly associated with running. Later on at the Rio Grande Restaurant some dude who I guess was running behind me congratulated me and we chatted... I told him what happened and he too was a doctor and told me that it was Meralgia Parethetica and then quizzed his other doctor friend to see what he thought and he too said the same thing. Now I'm pretty sure what happened to me and I'm scared shit-less! Ben, my friend who helped keep me moving at mile 16 never caught me... he came in at around 2:56 so somehow, I ran strong... Weird. I feel really beat up this morning. Worse than after any marathon that I have ever run. I thought my preparation was excellent and that I was ready. Well I guess I was ready, I PRd while running the last 10 miles with a painful injury. But now what? What the hell is Meralgnia Paresthetica? On a happy note. The beers were free and unlimited after the race... The support from my BT friends, Outdoorsgirl1978, FreckleFace, Snowgirl and Greyhound was AWESOME and I felt emotional as I crossed the finish line. I am lucky. 2:52:38 New PR. Plus a very cool 3rd Overall Masters Trophy