I am spending the long weekend up here on the Northshore. Hard not to be happy! Managed to get a cabin in Tettagouche SP - would have camped but then saw that a cabin was available and decided to put an unexpected bonus to good use (got a few $$ for some extra project work recently). I had originally planned to volunteer with the SHTA on Sunday as a group of high school kids had build a wooden bridge to replace one near Cramer Rd and were putting it in Fri-Sun. Then I got an email during the week to say the project would likely be done by Saturday so that was no problem - I would help out Saturday and do a long run Sunday instead. Then when I got to Duluth earlier today I got a call to say the project was completed... nice work kids! So now I get to run Saturday and Sunday and Monday. And a short trot later this evening. Happy indeed.
I did decide to go ahead with the surgery. Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate people giving their perspective. I am really happy with my doctor and sought other opinions too. June 21 is the day. The soonest I could have done it was June 8 which meant I'd still be in the walking boot for the Bighorn trip so I figured that would really be no fun at all! And while I would have survived not running the race this wasn't a trip I had any intention of cancelling as Kami and I planned it ages ago. So Bighorn 50M and then I shall recover from that and the surgery for a few weeks and see how it goes. No Afton or Voyageur which is disappointing of course but there is always next year, and the next year... and I know how much fun it is to volunteer at races where I know a lot of the runners so I am looking forward to that. The cyst is bothering me too much to put it off and given the size of it - and the amount of running I like to do - there is the risk that I'll damage the tendon if I try to ignore it. It won't be easy maintaining fitness while off my feet but now that I've been going to the gym a bit it won't be such a shock to focus on strength training for a while. I'll likely be able bike more than run during July which is fine as I've been wanting to do more of that. Hopefully I will be in decent shape by Where's Waldo.
Meanwhile, I got some running to do on my favourite trail...
