No room for Seconds

This mysterious stomach issue turned out to be some sort of issue with my back and I am mystified as to what I did to cause the back pain. I have strained my back on occasion in the past, and in every instance, there is always a tender-spot of acute pain, and in this particular instance, I couldnt feel any one spot on my back that seemed to be the root of the problem. Its almost as if my entire back cramped up. I initially mistook it for a stomach problem, but as the issue persisted, I realized that my stomach was fine – the pain was centered around my upper abdomen and my lower back. I am feeling much better, and the discomfort is localized enough for me to realize that it is indeed an issue with my back. This is going to sound really strange, but I think it was caused by tension. There is nothing I have physically done that would have caused that amount of pain in the past few days. Additionally, the discomfort came on slow. It wasnt as if I turned a certain way and immediately felt a strain. The last two weeks have been rough, and I think it all came to a head when my car hgo

Last week, I took my oldest daughter to her first day of kindergarten. As I was standing outside of the school, with all of the other parents, I made a disturbing observation. The majority of the other parents were obese. This bothers me. America has a problem with obesity – that’s common knowledge, but, I have never consciously observed people in order to really grasp the problem. Speaking as a person who spent a good majority of his life overweight, I know how hard it is to control one’s weight, but I have to ask where the train derailed. How did we get so big? How do so many people let themselves get so big? At what point does someone look in the mirror and say to themselves “hey, something’s wrong here.” I can understand someone having a bit of a spare tire. I cannot proclaim that I have anything that resembles a washboard stomach, but I am especially fascinated by the hugely obese – the people who are so obese that they have difficulty walking. I see it everyday on my travels to and from work. I see loads of people in Suburban Station, and I see a disturbingly large amount of people – women especially- who are so big that walking looks painful. Obesity is such a strain on one’s quality of life. Then there’s the larger issue of the effect of rampant obesity has on our healthcare system, and childhood obesity. The list goes on and on…

I score a free entry to the Distance Run on Sunday. Hows that for a kick in the nuts? Here I am, three days away, and I haven’t run in nearly two weeks, and I get a friggen free bib.

How did I score it? Small world: the guy who took my bib for the Philly Marathon (when I tore my tendon) emailed me out of the blue and offered me his entry because he separated his shoulder, and he doesnt want a dime for it. He doesnt want it to go to waste. So now I have a dilemma. By this point, I am out of shape. I havent done anything close to a long run in more than two weeks. I am coming off of some mysterious back injury. Should be fun….