Some­body pinch me. I’ve been run­ning for just three months. 12 weeks. That’s all. When I start­ed, I prob­a­bly weighed more than 220 pounds. I could­n’t even weigh myself, but pic­tures tell the tale. I’m down into the 180’s now and I’m feel­ing bet­ter than I have in quite some time. It’s great to be able to run dis­tances I nev­er thought I’d attempt, but real­ly rein­forces those achieve­ments and keeps me going.

This week I skimped a bit on work­outs. I did­n’t intend to, but it end­ed up work­ing for me any­way. Not only was I on vaca­tion, I’d also been suf­fer­ing from pain in my shins and calves. It took me a while to fig­ure out, but I was tying my sneak­ers too tight­ly, which kept mus­cles, lig­a­ments, ten­dons and all that good stuff from prop­er­ly flex­ing and relax­ing. My right shin still hurts a bit, but I think I’m on the road to recovery.

I put my ten­der limbs to the test yes­ter­day on a 16 mile run that took me from 21st and Poplar to leafy For­bid­den Dri­ve along the Wis­sahick­on and back. After Hur­ri­cane Han­na ran its course Sat­ur­day night, it was a beau­ti­ful Sun­day morn­ing, the tem­per­a­ture hov­er­ing around 70 degrees. Unlike our 14 mile run two weeks ago, this felt far more com­fort­able and relaxed. We main­tained a nine minute mile pace and nev­er real­ly labored, despite hav­ing got­ten lit­tle sleep after Josh and Suzan­ne’s wed­ding at the Glen Foerd man­sion Sat­ur­day night.

Rob and I need to bite the bul­let and buy those util­i­ty belts you see peo­ple jog­ging with on Kel­ly Dri­ve. For a run of this dis­tance, it’s a real test (and a lit­tle dumb) to not have water between the 2.5 mile mark and 13.5 miles. We’ll get those belts this week. I’m already look­ing for­ward to next Sun­day’s run!

The last time I was in Corol­la, NC, I’d just been laid off. It sounds bad, but the tim­ing was per­fect. The imme­di­ate after­math was so grat­i­fy­ing. It was the start to the best vaca­tion I’ve ever had. Seriously.

This time things are a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. After a fran­tic week spent cov­er­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion from the com­fort of my couch, I’m try­ing to unwind a bit and soak up some sun and surf. I think it’s working.

Unlike our last trip down here, I’m keep­ing up with my train­ing. It’s been a test. My first run in the swel­ter­ing North Car­oli­na heat was a bru­tal sev­en miles along the side of the road. It was a lit­tle scary, but I man­aged to fin­ish in a lit­tle more than an hour. It’s got­ten bet­ter over the week.

The biggest prob­lem I’ve been fac­ing is the ongo­ing bat­tle with my calves and shin splints. I had the same issue dur­ing the fit club train­ing. I keep tying my shoes too tight and it restricts my range of motion, lead­ing to a great deal of stiff­ness and pain. Worse, it pre­vents me from run­ning nat­u­ral­ly and my gait is real­ly messed up. Now that I’ve sort­ed it out, I hope I’ll be able to start run­ning more com­fort­ably before the Philadel­phia Dis­tance Run on Sep­tem­ber 21!