The Year of the Injury and Marine Love

I blame Trey Bailey.

Trey and I ran cross country together in high school at Collins Hill and attended Georgia College at the same time for a year or 2, but we really started hanging out and becoming close friends just after New Years 2009. Trey had just torn a ligament in his ankle and as we were discussing my nagging foot issues (plantar fascitis) he boldly declared 2009 the year "The Year of the Injury". Since that time I have continued to deal with foot issues, ankle problems, an achilles strain, hamstring pulls, and, now, a hip issue.

Throughout this time, except for taking a few weeks off here and there, I have been trying to continue training (hey, I am still a Buckley). I was able to get through most of the summer dealing with these nagging injuries, but about the time the Peachtree Road Race rolled around, my hip (which was probably caused by the hamstring) flared up and necessitated me taking a month off (and when I say "take off" i really mean stop running, but continue to bike and lift, because I would probably go crazy otherwise). Last week, I finally busted out the new running shoes and hit the road again, as I knew I had to start putting in the mileage for the Atlanta Marathon which is quickly heading this way. Luckily, my hip has been relatively cooperative and I have been icing, stretching, heating, icy-hotting, and popping aleve as much as possible to prevent it from regressing.

So training has begun! Last week was my test run on the hip and this week I will be getting out there in full force! I will spend the first couple weeks building mileage and treating my hip. At this point I am putting up numerous days of 5 mile runs, which I plan to extend a little next week. I am traveling to Lexington, KY this week for work, but I will still focus on getting in mileage and trying to stay injury-free.

I will provide another update next week and will hopefully be able to report an improving hip and increasing mileage. However, as mentioned above if I suffer any further setbacks it will be the fault of Mr. Trey Bailey (and not my continued stubbornness)!

P.S. I need to give a Big OO-RAH to my buddy Brandon Bowman for his donation over the weekend. While he is away serving our country in Afghanistan on what I believe is his 3rd or 4th tour he went onto my donation page and donated $500 to MMRF for my marathon. This man is my hero. So from all my readers out there (assuming I have any) can I get a big

OO-RAH!!!