...are you kidding me?

Update: runners' knees getting a little better. The PT is definitely beginning to work.

However...this weekend saw my first-ever gout attack hit on Saturday night. I got an email from Derek asking if I wanted to hang with him on his birthday, so we met at a little bar on Spring street and some other friends of his joined us. It was a pretty decent night. Throughout, though, my big toe was feeling more and more like I'd dropped something on it. Then it began to feel very bruised, maybe even broken. I excused myself and limped home wondering what the hell was up. By 1 a.m. it was so painful even the weight of my sheets hurt. Looked up "gout" and my symptoms are supremely classic. This sucks. One more thing to ask the doc about Tuesday morning, I guess. See if I can get some medication to help forestall recurrance.

Also, found out a couple of weeks ago that I won't be running ING this year...didn't get the lottery draw. This is probably a blessing, as between the summer heat/humidity, my knees healing too slowly, and now this goddamn gout, I'm getting paranoid that someone or something is conspiring to keep me out of any future races. No matter what, I HAVE to finish up two more qualifying races before the end of the summer! I will look for short 4-milers I suppose. This will get me entry into 2006's ING marathon, by which point I hope to have all these problems worked out.

Further news: I've got a hot job lead in Cincinnatti. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they call and that I at least get an interview. Could moving to a different city be in the cards this summer? And to the city I ran my first marathon in, at that? Cincinnatti is on my short list of "places I'm willing to move to". Not many towns make the cut.