The Memorial Day weekend was off to a good start, for the most part.  Following a 4-hour drive to Vermont, I woke up the next morning and coughed up some phlegm, the tail effect of a chest cold the week before.  Got dressed, walked toward the starting line, felt a back spasm, probably the result of sitting in the Jeep for so long the day before.  A couple of Ibuprofen left me a little looser, and feeling excited if unsure, I headed out on the Infinitus 9-mile trail race with some gusto.  Although a tight hamstring, the result of an injury the month before, limited my speed on the uphills.  While a sea of mud limited my speed on the downhills.  The last mile was relatively clear, and here finally I ran hard, and after receiving a large finisher’s medal and a handshake from the organizer, Andy Weinberg, I limped back to the Jeep for an even longer drive:  6 hours to New Jersey, where the next day I was going to take on a 1.6-mile open water swim in the Navesink River… Continue reading “Panic!” →