It appears that running a marathon in two weeks may have been a little, uh, overambitious. I just can’t help it; I’m signed up for two separate Nike+ iPod challenges (one to run the farthest in a month; the other to run 50 miles in the 25 days up to Christmas) and my competitive urge has kicked in. Tuesday night I actually set a new personal best for the mile (10:24) but as I was climbing the hill from Sydney Uni’s No. 2 Oval, I felt a sudden stab in my hamstring. Again. Crap. I ended up walking the rest of the distance home. I guess I’ve been ramping up the distance too quickly. I decided to give it a rest on Wednesday and Thursday. I also started rubbing Voltaren on the muscle a few times a day (since I can’t take ibuprofen anymore) and I’ve taken a couple Epsom salt baths. I also saw a massage therapist Thursday afternoon who gave my legs a thoroughly painful going-over. Friday I felt cautiously optimistic enough to try a short run. I went for a two mile run around Vic Park and tried to concentrate on taking shorter strides and not killing myself. I also ran 90% of it on the grass, which I figured would help. I still felt some pain, but it wasn’t really the muscular strain of before. (I think it was just soreness from the massage.) Afterwards I went to GNC to pick up some Endura. It’s nast but I’m forcing myself to choke it down a couple times a day. Does anybody else have any suggestions to get me back on the road as quickly as possible?