Another Sluggish Summer

Well my summer break is almost over and once again it was a sluggish summer for running, that eventually led to an injury.  Which is weird, considering that most over use injuries involve the fact that you have to use said injured muscle a lot.  Oh well.  Below are some lackluster highlights from my summer of running.

• Things started out well with a decent run at the Roan Adventure Marathon
• Had a great time at the second Wilson Creek sWEaTfest.  We had a good crew show out and camping the night before was a blast.  The weather turned out great and the waterfalls and swimming holes felt great!
• Went to the beach for a week for the first time in 2 years, which was good and had a couple of good easy beach runs, but then on the last day......
• BEACH CRUISER ACCIDENT!!!!!!  This sounds ridiculous and it was.  On the last day of our trip I decided to ride the beach cruiser down and back to the beach from my parents home on Oak Island (about 8 mile round trip) and 2 blocks from being back the house I wrecked.  I had decided to see how fast I could get the fixed gear beach cruiser up to and started cranking hard on the pedals and got up in the saddle.  Just as I believe I approached 20mph, the chain flew off, locked up the pedals, caught my flip flop in between the chain and rear spokes, and promptly slid about 10 feet down the hot cement sidewalk, crushing my awesome basket along the slide as well. :(  I got a pretty good case of road rash on my knee, elbow, and shoulder which kept me from running for about a week.
• I PLAYED A LOT OF GOLF!!!!  Which is awesome, but may have contributed to the end of the summer injury.  I know, really?
• Put together and ran the inaugural Midnight Manor Marathon on the trails in Cone Park at night! Great course, great weather, awesome moonlit views, and cows.  My run was a little "crappy", but it was a good time and felt good to get a marathon in during the hot month of July.
• Ran a middle school cross country camp that went really well.
• INJURED my plantar fascia!  I did something similar back in November last year and I guess I never really let the injury heal.  With the added pressure on it because of golfing so much, yes I said golfing, I believe my arch said enough is enough.  I hobbled around for a few days, and then decided not to run for the next 2 weeks.  A lot of icing and massaging in those 2 weeks have got me back on the trail this week and so far no pain after two runs.  Hopefully, I've given this thing enough time to heal and I can get back started in training for Peak to Creek Marathon.
• Got to witness Matt "the Grand" Kirk finish and break the self-supported Appalachian Trail Record on top of Springer Mtn, Ga.  Talk about an unreal experience!  Matt is amazing.  You can watch all his videos and a photo essay on his site at http://sub60.wikispaces.com/

Looking forward to another solid fall running season now!  Let the training begin, and more blog post!