1:58

While she wishes she was a dancer
And that she'd never heard of cancer
She wishes God would give her some answers
-Our Lady Peace

I went for a run today with about 500 of my closest friends.  For the first eight miles I ran with Neon Angie, Old Man Huge Calf, and Old Man Corner Cutter.  But as I crossed mile marker 8, I recognized what I had known for quite some time - not all was going well on this run.  My left knee wasn't really bending correctly and I wasn't really getting power from that leg.  That's right - dead leg.  I'm pretty sure this was karma from the whole dead arm incident.  OK - I can accept that. 

I had a difficult mile 9 and I tried to come to terms with this situation.  I mentally said good-bye to my friends and spent 3 minutes walking,stretching, and hopping.  Then I ran again.  For 7 minutes.  Then 3 more minutes of walk,stretch, hop.  I became very discouraged as this ratio seemed unlikely to get better and I wasn't really interested in doing this (or worse) the rest of the run.  So I didn't.  I found some sort of straight-legged run that worked for a little while.  Then I found inspiration in the above lyric and just ran.  I might have made some awful grunts along the way, but since there were about 35,000 fewer people than my last 1/2 marathon, I had plenty of space to suffer in peace.

Crossed the finish line while the MC said "here comes a runner with his iPod on, listening to Justin Bieber - must be the president of the Justin Bieber fan club".  Thanks.  But I've gone to great pains to tell everyone what I was listening to - I can't believe that guy hadn't been reading the blog to prepare.  Just lazy.