Mao Mao Speaks

We were lost.  Not "Cast Away" lost but, lost.  This was before GPS was readily available.  Smart phones weren't on the market yet.  iPods could only be purchased with click wheels.  Somewhere in the middle of Ohio on a February day Deb and I were driving around with our printed Mapquest directions and a cell phone. We were looking for a dog shelter.  Living in this shelter was a dog name Ricky. Ricky had been found via the Pet Finder website by Deb.  And she was in love.  Our friend, and Deb's coworker, Mindy had asked the folks that ran that shelter to hold onto Ricky so that we could come and pick him up.  And we were lost. Just when we were both about to give up, just before the closing time for this shelter...we found it.  It was a modest shelter.  Little cubicles made of cinder blocks with chain link fence doors lined the walls.  I don't remember the number of cubicles.  I don't remember how many dogs were in the...

January and February are usually  tough months for me.  Lack of sunshine, work stress and self diagnosed seasonal depression all descend on me at once, in one fell swoop.  This leaves my head swimming with a wonderful cocktail of anxiety and self depreciation.  It isn't uncommon for me to retreat into myself.  Last year I had running to focus on.  Holiday Lake 50k++ on the horizon.  I had things to keep me busy and things to look forward to.  This year... I have Umstead 100 mile endurance race and (had) Holiday Lake 50K++, the return of Mao Mao.   But this year I also have a pretty angry left leg.  My tibia is pissed.  And it has every right to be. I've overworked it even though it has been giving me the warning signs of something being wrong.  In short I haven't enjoyed a run since early December.   But this post isn't about leg pain, leg pain management or for me to complain about the pain.  I have already po...