A week until St. Pat's race

Over the past month or so I've comfortably finished hilly runs of a little over six miles, so I think I should be OK for the race.

My goal, naturally, is not to set any speed records. It's to feel good and enjoy the run.

But the past week hasn't been so great. Last weekend, I changed my route and ran one of my old five-mile loops, with steeper and longer hills than the six-milers I have been doing. It's along a street that we drive on all the time, and sometimes I can't keep from saying to whichever child is in the car, "I can't believe I used to run up this," to which the child usually says, "You'll do it again."

So I did it!

That was the good part. The next part is the runner's version of pride coming before a fall.

Then I looped around to the easier part, which still has a hill, and I was focusing so hard that I tripped and fell on a branch that was sticking out onto the street. It was a good fall, but my knee hurt. When I got home I told Joe about my accomplishment...and about the fall, which I really should have left out of the story.

Joe, who is not his brother's keeper but who is his mother's, got understandably upset, seeing as how he was the one who took me to the emergency room when I fell on my back and hit my head on the pavement a couple of years ago, and he is the one who's been home when I've fallen in the driveway, among other places.

"If you don't watch where you're going, you're going to hit your head and really hurt yourself one of these days," he said. He said we should put a chart on the fridge noting every time I fall. I think I'll pass on that one.

Anyway, I remained a little sore after that. Then, after walking in clogs from the T to a doctor's appointment in Boston on Tuesday, my left shin began hurting. A nurse even pointed out that I was limping.

And THEN after a run Thursday I got some twinges of plantar fasciitis pain in my right heel. Anyone who has had that ailment knows how alarming it is when you feel a twinge.

I'm going to take it easier – tomorrow maybe run a few miles around the lake where the surface is soft – but I still want to get in one longer run.

I hope that after all my hard work, I don't limp through the race.