• I have YET to see Rent. I know, it’s a crime. *sigh* Anyone interested?
• Well, it appears the answer to whether or not there are any safe, well-lit places to run in Kingwood after dark is: NO. Oh well.
• My long run on Saturday (10 miles) went well. Nothing out of the ordinary. My knee seems to be improving, since I haven’t had any IT band issues lately. Yay for stretching. I’ll post my times later (when I get back to my watch).
• Speaking of - I think the battery in my Polar watch is going out. The battery can only be replaced by Polar themselves, which means I’ll have to send it in. If I can’t get the watch back by the Marathon, I may just stop wearing it on my long runs in order to save the battery. Maybe there’s a cheap-o $10 stopwatch I can wear in the meantime…
• I spent 5 hours at the Galleria on Sunday, braving thousands of holiday shoppers. I counted that as my cross-training activity for the day. heh.
• ONLY 41 MORE DAYS TILL THE MARATHON!!

Is there a safe, well-lit place to run in Kingwood after dark?

Saw Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang up in the Woodlands this weekend instead of Walk the Line. It’s a quirky, random movie with Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. Good brain candy, which is what I needed at the time.

Sarah & Cassie: My fellow RENT fans!! I’ll Cover You gets me every time. Opens Wednesday!!

Bob: Thanks for the icon edit. And sorry I missed your comment until after Saturday’s run. Yes, I’m running the Houstonian 30k. Speaking of….has anyone gotten their race packets in the mail yet?

Upcoming Races/big training runs:

November 24 - Uptown Turkey Trot 10K

December 10 - Run the Woodlands 5K

December 11 - Houstonian 30K

December 14 - Houston Strider’s Christmas Lights Run

December 17 or 24th: A 21 mile training run with HoustonFit (17th) or 22 miles with the Striders (24th). I think the run with the Striders would be more fun, but I have a feeling I’d be more motivated to run on the 17th than the morning of Christmas eve. I’ll have to make a decision in the next few weeks, I guess.

December 24 - January 14: Tapering

January 15: MARATHON DAY

Cameras: Finally, I caved in and ordered a digital camera: the Canon A610. Had two stackable coupons from Dell and ended up saving $75. Yay. Now I can start doing the really important things digital cameras were meant for - taking pictures of my cats.

Muggles: Saw the newest Harry Pottah tonight. We went to the Angelika, figuring the other theaters would either be sold out or packed with kids. Well, the Angelika was definitely packed….with adults. It was great. There’s nothing like seeing 40+ year olds in business suits sprinting down a theater hallway to grab seats for a children’s movie. I love the Angelika. The movie was fun - Ron is so cute and Harry is looking more and more like Frodo. MB invited a friend who’s run 7 marathons (cool!), so we chatted about local races/running in general.

Turkey Trots: Running the Uptown Turkey Trot 10K on Thursday morning. My first time to trot!

Tomorrow morning: 10 miles with HoustonFit.

Current happy things:

• Project Runway: Season 2. December 7th on Bravo. The DVR is ready and waiting.
• Honey Nut Cheerios.
• My meeting in Dallas tomorrow got cancelled. Yay!
• Cold front = good running weather.
• Going to see Harry Pottah and the Goblet of Fire on Friday with some muggle friends.
• Leaving the office before 8pm.

I am home now from the 25K race. A cold pack is wrapped around my knee and I’m fighting the urge to spend the rest of the day on the couch.

Anyways, a quickie report from today’s race: thank god I finished. It was 80+ degrees, humid and just all around not fun. But, I finished, and that’s what matters.

More extended update later. Hobbling off to shower.

Had a nice (albeit quick) meeting with Dr. Corboy, who checked over my knee/ITB and said it would be OK for me to run in the HMSA 25K (the 2nd of the Houston Marathon warm-up series) this Sunday. YAY!

Dr. Corboy checked my knee and confirmed that my problems were IT band related. I have some fluid in my knee, but nothing that should prevent me from running on Sunday….and more importantly, in January. She showed me some stretches to do, said I should stop at water stops to stretch if necessary and gave me some info about a Rice University professor who created a sports injury website explaining IT band syndrome.

I’m so happy that Dr. Corboy practices at Baylor Family Medicine. She specializes in women’s sports injuries, particularly those related to running…..and best of all, she’s run at least 11 marathons herself!! She said she and her husband (also a runner, and a physician at the clinic) are training for the Tuscon Marathon in December, so she won’t be doing the 25K this weekend. I really, really wanted to talk to he in more detail about her Marathon training strategies, marathon experiences, experience treating female athletes, the types of injuries/problems she sees most often in women runners, etc…..but she was late for another appointment and I had to get to the office.

I’m looking forward to seeing my fellow Houston Running Bloggers and fabulous Houston Striders at the race this Sunday!!