Birthday DNF

Unofficial Birthday Law of Running: Run Your Age

My 32nd birthday was on Sunday, and this lead to some wild postulating on my part.  I thought about my intermittent hip and hip flexor pains and other random sore spots experienced during my last two weeks of running.  I considered that my total mileage during each of these two weeks had been around twenty miles.  

With this in mind, I decided the ideal activity for the afternoon of my 32nd birthday would be running a mile for each year (32 miles) on the IU cross country course.  Ted, Oscar and Alex (good friends and runners) came out to the cross country course on a decidedly rainy, cold and windy day to slog through the wet grass with me for as many miles as they were willing to run with me.

IU Cross Country Course - 5K Loop Map

Six 5k loops later and all sides of both hips felt completely trashed.  I started out with 3 loops in minimalist New Balance MT101s and then switched to my usual Nike Lunar Racer 2 when my feet started to hurt, despite the total lack of traction in the mud of the Nike lunar sole.

MT101: lightweight, minimalist, great rock plate, and probably not the correct choice for my currently beat up feet

Regardless, the bottoms of my feet hurt badly through the entire last three laps.  Katie came out and joined Alex and I for the last lap but it was definitely a lost cause at this point for me.  Although I felt mostly great (despite being very cold and wet), my feet and hips just hurt so much I decided it wasn't a good idea to keep going.

So after almost 19 surprisingly difficult miles of what I thought would be nice and comfortable running on grass I ended up with my first "DNF" (did not finish) of the year.  Even thought this was completely unofficial and not a race I had been pretty set on running the 32 miles.

I have a weird lump on the bottom of my right foot that still hurts when I walk.  Maybe I would be better served to take more time off.  Maybe I could be more observant of continuing aches and pains before proclaiming made up running laws.  

Regardless, it was a fun attempt and a good time running with friends so I think I will give the observation of this "running law" another go next year.