Wednesday, January 9, 2008

No marathon but I can climb!

Two bits o info as an update.

So I have bad news and good news. Bad news is that I am not going to be running in the Rock-N-Roll 1/2 Marathon this weekend like I had hoped. The good news is that I won't be paying the ridiculous $115 entry fee that it costs for the half right now. I have come to the conclusion that I simply can not run that far right now. My knee has been more sore lately and last night I pulled up lame with shooting pain after about 2 miles. I could enter and just plan to walk a lot of it, but I would rather spend that entry fee on something more exciting, like my 24 hr bike race that is in five weeks. That is the other main reason to bail on the Marathon, I am 100% committing to that race and I do not want to blow it on a run guaranteed to destroy my knee for a week or more. It does make me realize that I absolutely need knee surgery before I am able to get back to distance running of any kind. I am bummed, but that is life. Hopefully next year I will be able to run it with my bionic knee #2 post surgery #2.

Secondly, I am now certified to lead climb at the indoor rock gym. Woo hooo! I went last night and took the test that gives me the "I'm a stud" card to hang off my harness so I can climb in the non roped room (all the best climbers have this and I wanted one too...). This is fun because it opens up a whole new world of routes at the gym and requires more strength and concentration than the top roped routes. I found it to be much more challenging because you basically climb one handed so that every three steps you can tie into the clips that run along the route. It's also much more challenging to belay on a lead climb because you have to be ready for a big fall anytime especially if the person you are belaying weighs more than you. I usually flew off the ground for a second before I would break the fall and return to the ground. It definitely takes more trust in your belayer and equipment.

Go hump day go. Okay a little faster now. You can pick it up anytime now....grrr.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Let's go climb outdoors sometime. Real rock is better!