When you gotta go

I woke up Saturday morning, had a small cup of coffee, and hit the road for my long run of the week, an 11 miler at a comfortable pace. I did an out and back that offered views of Lake Champlain at the turnaround point. Unfortunately, this run also offered a gastro-intestinal revolt at said turnaround, the longest point from home. With no bathroom in sight and TONS of poison ivy lining the trail, I clench-walked one painful mile before finding a solution to my predicament. No need for details here, except for the fact that I ran the remaining 4 miles with only one sock. You do the math.

Oh, the joys of running.

On a completely different front, I had a massage today to work out some shoulder/back issues I've been having (residual pain from a waterskiing-induced shoulder separation 2 years ago), and my masseuse made an interesting observation. She was working my neck area while I was on my back, and she said she could tell I was a runner because of the muscles in the front of my neck and around my collarbones. Apparently, runners' intense breathing, especially on longer runs, develops these muscles in a special way that isn't found on non-runners. I couldn't tell you what the difference is, but I thought it was really cool to have her notice a physiological trait that specifically id's me as a runner.