So much to say...

First of all, thanks to all of you who left encouragement, sympathy, warnings, and advice for me about my PF. I am icing it, exercising it (with the frozen water bottle, thanks Carly), trying to rest it as Anne recommended (more on that in a bit), and have definitely consumed wine as several of you recommended, in an effort to recover it as quickly as possible...

I did run one time in Vegas (well walked 12 min, ran 12 min, walked 12 minutes).

It certainly looks different there.

View from the 'rent's neighborhood. The sky was just AMAZING on Friday.

Didn't notice the hip AT ALL on the run. I think that Irene is right, that maybe I can only focus on one pain at a time. And the PF? Well, the foot felt OK during the run...I mean, felt it the moment I switched from walking to running, but it wasn't horrible. Before I even started running, however, I noticed that I could feel the pressure on my heel and thought it might be the extra, stability insole that I use, so I tried switching out the SuperFeet insole in my right shoe with an old RRS cushion insole that I used to run in but now use in my everyday walkin' shoes. That seemed to help immensely and gave my heel some extra cushion. But like I said, it's an old insole, so I think I'll go get some new ones today.

I'm going to try to walk 14/run 14/walk 14 on the dreadmill in a little bit (probably sometime after I hit "publish").

As for this weekend's long-run post, guest-bloggers Betty and Elsie, who ran with the herd at Saturday's SDTC long run from Solana Beach to Del Mar are filling in. Betty provided the narrative, and Elsie sent me some photos from breakfast and provided some extra narrative.

Betty's Report

• We met at Betty's in the pouring rain, Mik, Kat, Elsie, BBJ and Betty.
• Drove to Solana Beach and parked at the train station to save $8 - it was worth it!
• Had a great run in the sunshine and beautiful morning weather although all the girls in our group had trash bags on in expectation of a downpour.

Mik, Elsie, BBJ, and Sis...baggin' it

Betty - ready for the rain run!

• We ran out for 80-100 minutes with all of us doing from 7.5 miles to just over 10 miles.
• Saw Scotty there, also nursing his injuries.
• Beautiful run with a rainbow in the sky - we went to eat at a historic place in Del Mar (Elsie knows the name eds note: it's Americana) and they had a real bottle of champagne. We ate outside with some heaters that weren't really needed - watched BBJ show off his parallel parking skills, and ate great food! Had cheesy grits also.

• Drove home to a downpour in La Mesa!
• Other Highlights -
• Elsie has her first date tomorrow since 1969!
• BBJ needs to decide about where to host next month's Dinner Club
• lots of good conversation wondering how you were doing and/or if you were going to be able to ski next weekend! (Alice's 2nd note: I'm supposed to go skiing at Mammoth this coming weekend. We've had this vacation booked for MONTHS...sharing a condo with BBJ and Wilma...can't wait!!!!)
  

Elsie's Report

We wanted you to see the new restaurant we tried in Del Mar - we sat outside (yes it was sprinkling) and you can see that Mik is cold before they turned on the heaters.

Clearly a different reaction to the morning weather than Betty's report

We had a complicated payment schedule with 3 cards, cash, etc. BBJ was supposed to pay $10, but got charged $45 - as usual, we owe him.

BBJ...hangin' with the herd.

He put up with our chatter and ran "super fast" all the way to Del Mar beach & back in 1:30 - we laughed a lot, and toasted you (see the mimosas??) and the impressive bottle of high quality champagne??

Wow...is it real champagne? Must be because they were in Del Mar...

Kat...wondering how she ended up with this group...

I do *heart* my herd ((hugs)) to all of them.

Update on Mom
I am back in San Diego now after spending two days in Vegas with mom and dad. In all honesty, I think I got the easy shift. My sisters both saw the worst of it...when she came out of the surgery, the pain she was in...partially because she is a stubborn bird and refused to use the pain medication until she was in so much pain she couldn't stand it any more, but by then, one shot of the meds wouldn't suffice... and partially because the surgeon removed part of her EFF-ING LUNG FOR GOD'S SAKE and that is just an amazingly brutal surgery...so...because she was in pain, and not taking enough pain medication (on a self-monitorng morphine drip...the kind where you push the little button when you need more meds...), she couldn't sleep...even though all the nurses and the doctors and we were all telling her to just PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON MOM!

BTW...if I ever have to have a major surgery, I'll won't be like that...I'll be pushin' that pain med button as if I were a Jeopardy champion.

In any event, by the time I arrived in Vegas on Thursday, mom was still pretty weak, but I think she'd finally figured out that pain meds = sleep and sleep = good, so I got to report all the good news.

Also...the human body and it's ability to heal is just an amazing thing. By the time I left on Saturday--only five days after surgery--mom was walking, had moved into a new room, was no longer in ICU, was sitting up, eating, passing gas (a very major deal and I'm sure she's just thrilled that I'm letting the Internet know about it). We know there are going to be rough times ahead. Chemo is a very real probability. But the worst part of the surgery recovery seems to be over, and Tammy, you were right, it was a good time to be there.

One funny thing that happened is that my sisters taught my dad how to send a text message. I'm not sure it'll ever be a primary form of communication for him, but I was pretty surprised last night when I actually received a text message from my father about mom being moved to the Rehab Unit (which is an even lower level of care...which sounds like a bad thing, but is actually a really good thing because it means that she doesn't NEED the extra care)...and will be there for a couple of days before being allowed to go home.

Dad's text message...Amazing on many different levels. Luv that he's using some txt msg shorthand!

I've said it before, mom is just the strongest person I know...all 4'11", 90 pounds of her (and I may be overstating her weight right now). Watching her walk up and down the hallway made me see, perhaps, where in the gene-pool my stamina and desire to complete a marathon came from. I think that hallway was my mom's marathon...at least it was on Saturday.

Also...good nurses are probably paid no where near enough.

So...got about a bazillion things to do today...get stuff ready for Mammoth, get some food in this house (but not too much)...some laundry...some schoolwork...oh yeah, work on a grant proposal that's due next week. Please know, I've been reading all your blogs, mostly through my iPhone RRS reader, which made it really difficult to comment. You've all been a god-send and I'm going to try to do some catching up later today.

Thanks again for all your comments and support, especially for my mom. It really means a lot to me (and to her and my dad...). You all are great peeps and I *heart* you all to and want to give you all one big Internet ((hug))!