Wow. So, I'm pretty much speechless at this point. I reached and exceeded my fundraising goal today! I've said it before and I'll say it again -- thank you so much to everyone who has donated and given me their support and kind words.

Although I've met my goal, please don't let this stop you from donating if you were considering doing so. Remember that at the core of this all is an important cause. We are raising money to keep people with AIDS and HIV alive until there is a cure. And there will be a cure, thanks to the support of people like you.

On the running front, we have our 17 (!!!) mile run this weekend. My left knee has been acting up since our 14 mile run a couple weeks ago, so I've been icing it and taking ibuprofen with the hopes that I won't seriously injure it. Wish me luck!

So today I was supposed to run 17 miles.

2 is almost 17, right?

Like our 12-mile run, this run started out on the hill up to the Cliff House. I've mentioned how I've been having problems with my knee lately. It's been a little sore this past week, but I thought I was going to be okay. On the way up the hill, I was feeling okay, but on the way down, my knee really started hurting. I thought it would subside when we got to flat terrain, but it didn't so I decided to stop at the training site. I spoke to our couch and our program coordinator, and they mentioned that a chiropractor would be coming in a couple hours, so I went to a coffee shop down the street to wait. As a funny aside, Buddy also only did 2 miles, but he did a different 2 miles. He was wise and skipped the hill running and rejoined his group after mile 2. However, he only made it 2 miles. Somehow we missed each other and went to different coffee shops to wait, only meeting up again when we both went to see the chiropractor. When she came, I limped over to her and she worked on my knee for a bit. She said that it was my I-T band that was hurting, and she did some excrutiatingly painful work on it, but it felt better afterwards. Since she is based in San Francisco, she referred me to a chiropractor closer to where I live.

I'm feeling disappointed and frustrated since I really wanted to do this run, but my better judgement outweighed my frustration. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can heal and be strong for our 20-mile run.

Stupid knee.

I had my first appointment with the sports chiropractor this morning. We talked about my pain (physical, that is...) and she watched me walk and stand and squat and all sorts of fun things. She did some work on my back, hips, and knees, which was painful but not the excruciating pain of last Saturday. She gave me a couple stretches to do, and I also bought a foam roller to cause myself pain from the comfort of my own home. I asked her about the possibility of doing the 20-mile run next Saturday, and she said that it depends on how I respond to the treatment. It wasn't quite the gung-ho attitude I was hoping for, but I do want to take care of this problem before it gets serious.

In the meantime, I'm going to do some biking in the gym at work to keep up my cardio and hopefully the stretches and exercises will magically make things better!

.........

I ran 20 miles yesterday.

And boy are my arms tired! I mean legs.

But what about your knee, Sha?? What indeed. I've been going to the chiropractor pretty regularly, and I did a couple of short runs this past week. My knee was feeling all right, but I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to do the full 20 miles, so I decided to shoot for 10 miles. The course was very similar to our 14-miler, which I was happy about because I really like running around Lake Merced. The weather was beautiful too, and we were all it really good spirits. We knew we were up for a long run, so we tried to amuse ourselves with 20 Questions and I Spy. That lasted all of 5 minutes or so.

So fast forward a couple hours, and we're approaching the 10 mile marker. Up to that point, I had been having a bit of pain in my left knee, but I was really starting to hit my stride (ba dum bum). The pain was occasionally there, but it wasn't intense like it was at the start of the 17 miler. We reached the 10 mile marker and I was still feeling good so I thought, "What the heck" and kept going.

A couple hours after that, my pace group was really starting to struggle. We were starting to get spread out, so we switched to a 3:2 run:walk (from 3:1; we ran 2 minutes slower for this run) but it was getting tough. We were achey, hungry, and oh-so-tired. But as we approched the last mile marker, I got a huge "I-just-ran-20-miles" adrenalin rush and actually sprinted to the finish.

That night I was sore but not "I'm-going-to-die" sore, which I'll take as a good sign. Today I'm pretty sore, but I'm going to ice my knee and do my stretches, and I already have an appointment wtih my chiropractor scheduled for tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll be as good as new soon.

Yesterday's run really drove home to me how much long distance runs are as much, if not more of, a mental challenge than a physical one. From the weather to encouragement from my awesome pace group to my being so psyched to be running at all, everything was mentally aligned to allow me to finish that run. It's pretty amazing what your mind can fool your body into doing.

On a related note, yesterday I also got a cool AIDS Marathon roll-y luggage for raising over $4000.

Update: Dood. According to some websites, I burned somewhere between 1600 and 1800 calories on Saturday. Crrrazy!

A word of warning: if a chiropractor asks you to wiggle your toes while working on you, watch out! She's about to crack your neck!

Chiropractors are sneaky.