Looking back - August 1999

August 1999 – 15 years ago:

Tough month for me, started with promise ended with pain. I got in 282 miles with 9 days off, the days off from ankle woes that had me in a hospital in Italy. Yikes!

I kicked off the month with a 2nd place finish at the Yankee Homecoming 3 mile running 14:48. I passed on the longer race as I was preparing for the Beach to Beacon 10k three days later. I had an "okay" race at BtB running 30:47 over the rolling point to point 10k. Sub-31 got me 18th place in the field of 3200+. A week later I was feeling sluggish and tired at the Healthcare 5k in Newmarket NH. I ended up in second place running an uninspired 15:17. A couple of days later I was off to Europe for the Challenge Stellina mountain race. My ankle had been giving me all kinds of woes leading up to the race but I figured I could tough it out. I struggled mightily during the race running a 1:27:32 for 21st place and after finishing found that I couldn’t support my weight on the ankle. I wound up getting taken by ambulance to the scariest hospital I’ve ever been in. They took x-rays with no lead apron! I was told I had a "distortion of the ankle". I ended up not being able to run again until October.