Blacksburg Classic

This past weekend was the Classic, the biggest running race of the year here in Blacksburg. Its a good race and goes right by our house and onto the huckleberry trail which is where I usually run. I did alright, and did the 10 mile in 1:07:30 for a 6:45/mile average. I was about 3 minutes slower than last year but given that I haven't really been training I was happy. Some year I would like to really train for this race. 

The amazing performance of the day was turned in by Ed Dickenson. He won in 58:16. The amazing thing is that Ed is 45 years old and has a kid. Got to love the old guys beating up on the college kids.

Cohiba recovering slowly

Cohiba is getting better, but slowly The surgery went well and she is healing. She can walk but we have to use a sling to support her rear end as its wobbly. The big problem is that she needs to be crated all day for 4 weeks! She hates it but we can't risk her re-injuring herself. Here are some pics:

You can see they shaved a reverse mohawk into her:

Here is the scar, about 6 inches long and 12 staples:

Here are a couple of images from her CT scan. You can see the vertebra and the ribs. The lighter area in the middle, near the last ribs, are the ruptured discs. You don't have to be a doctor to see that she isn't right:

dog down

So most of you know that I run with my dogs, two primarily. Cohiba and Romeo go with me on most runs and have gone on runs up to around 12 miles. They pull the whole way and are in great shape. So it was quite a surprise on Wednesday when Cohiba hurt herself. It started in the morning. As I was leaving to school I mentioned to Lisa that Cohiba looked strange. Later that morning she took Cohiba to the vet as she wasn't looking good. The vet thought that Cohiba had probably strained her back or something. By the time I got home, Cohiba was almost paraplegic. I called the vet school here at VT and took her in. They checked her out and thought she had ruptured an intervertebral disc. They kept her overnight. The next morning they did a CT scan and then took her into surgery. Cohiba managed to rupture 3 discs! She came through the surgery alright and is recovering. She is still at the hospital and Lisa, Amalia, and I have been going to visit her. Cohiba seems happy to see us and should be able to come home on monday. She will need a lot of therapy and time to recover but someday should hopefully be able to run with Romeo and me again.