Ham Sandwich Indicted!

It's weird. Sometime in the last three weeks I think I became a runner. I say think, because I'm not sure if I've just stumbled onto some type of lucky running streak, or if I've actually made to to the point where I can run several miles, regularly, without stopping. You know, a runner...who likes to run. I've been training for the upcoming (Sunday!) C olumbus Half Marathon for about five months now. It's actually the third half I've done (Chicago--'03, Columbus--'07), so I've been pretending to be a runner for quite sometime. Pretending, because until recently "running" meant running for a while, then walking for a bit before running again, etc... Back in 2009, I resolved to run a 5K a month, and made it through to May (again with the run/walk paradigm), but it fell by the wayside when I got tired of spending the money, and then summer came, and weekends were busy, and well, you know what they say about excuses. Fast forward to t...

I'm one-fourth of the way through my 5K-a-Month project--Woot! This race should have been completely uneventful--decent temps, a bunch of friends running it, beer at the end...Except for the fact that I'm one of the less graceful people I know. Sooooo...somewhere in the middle of the 3rd mile, I'm chugging along, feeling pretty good, settled in a nice pace when I hit a pothole in the road. And before I go any further, let me back up a second. At this point, I have two things working against me: my aforementioned lack of grace and my incredibly weak ankles, who have seen countless sprains, rips, tears, and pulls over the years. Anyway, I hit a pothole (and not a big one, mind you, more like a divot in the asphalt), my right ankle rolls underneath me, I stumble, fall, catch myself with my left and hand knee, then roll over so I end up on my back. In the middle of the road. With runners coming up behind me. When I stand up, my hand is bleeding, my right ankle is throbbing, and...

...was how I was described by the woman "running" behind me single file on this past weekend's mid-winter Bataan Death March. Thanks, lady. I was on this ridiculous adventure because my New Year's resolution this year is to run a 5K every month. I figure it'll keep my occupied/in quasi decent shape (providing I actually do some training), and will give me a chance to increase my collection of performance t-shirts. Last Saturday marked the January race--the Fantastic Frigid 5K, squeeking in on January 31st. It was definitely frigid, but fantastic may be a bit of a stretch. The course was basically a 3.1 mile run through 6-12" of snow, with a layer of crusty ice on top. My goal, aside from not getting frostbite (it was 8 degrees), was to finish without tripping and falling into said snow. Which, for the record, I accomplished. It did however, take me just under 59:00 (by far the worst time I've ever run a 5K!!!!), since I spent large chunks of time trudg...