Hellooooo compadres, and apologies for joining so late.   As most of you know, since that heady year when most of us were last all together: 2009's Boston and Dublin, Antitrust and real Marathons, I have been in that Dark Place that is Plantar Eff.   At the start I hoped I was just 6 months behind Spencer in recovery, but it dragged on and on, and I did everything I could find to treat it...using that strassberg sock, Das Boot in bed, icing, heel cups, orthotics, stretching, needles, massage, rest, meds, and the dreaded and expensive (£200 a pop x 6 tries) of Extra Corporal Shock wave Therapy...THAT HURT I can say.    During all this I couldn't run at all, and even standing to lecture in Bruges was a pain.  I should have just stopped all the therapy and did what Max said which was to switch sports for a few weeks or months and try rockclimbing or something which might help with recovery generally.  Eventually I did, but turned to rowing in Eights and Fours, and as much I have got into it, and it is great for the legs and core, and the club I'm in on the Isis in Oxford is fun as well as uber competitive...it is a hard hard sport and I am physically and mentally much more suited to long slow runs in the woods, than pounding away doing the equivalent of squatting down and hurling a fridge over my shoulder a few thousand times an outing.   During all this I just didn't feel like writing about my non-running and was even being childish and not taking the wrapping off my RunnersWorlds...petty huh?  Anyway, I am feeling a window of hope opening in the heel, and so I have been out on the odd plod/jog/trot since the Olympics here so I figured I would cement that by blogging about EU and UK antitrust stuff with you, and inflicting the Recovery News on you, and planning for the next Antitrust Marathon in Rome with you, and maybe I will even lace em up for that one!
Philip

On the shelf

I was really looking forward to the Chicago Half Marathon which is a great race and where there was finally great weather on Sunday.  Unfortunately, I managed to strain a calf muscle doing nothing in particular on Saturday.  Instead of running, I spent the rest of Saturday gulping generic tylenol and applying a heating pad.  Taking the rest of the week off, getting a light massage toward the week and then pick up where I left off.  Need to find another fall half in the area to fill out my race card.  Only thing currently scheduled is the Hot Chocolate 15K in early November plus maybe pacing some friends for a bit of the Chi Marathon over Columbus Day weekend.

Alternate Histories

Bet you never knew the true origin of the Chicago Fire.

Amicus Brief as Comic Book

First time I've ever seen one. 

Running club

One of the goals of our law school running club, which my former colleague P__ founded in 2009, was to find fast students to help us get good workouts in. It took a few years, but -- two new 1Ls have started running with the group, and they hammer. So we spend a mile or so being social and then the group splits into the "we enjoy this sport" crowd and the "we want to vomit at the end of this workout" crowd. I try to keep up with the latter, with mixed success.

Work, Ski, Run (Bandit edition)

5 talks in three days kicked off my trip to Chile.  We have an ongoing exchange program with the Jesuit law school in Chile which hosted my first visit to the Chile.  With varying degrees of formality, I spoke at the national competition agency, the specialized tribunal (3 lawyers, 2 economists) who hear the cases, two panels at a symposium at the Jesuit law school, and a breakfast seminar at the University of Chile law school center on regulation and competition (Regcom).  That plus various meals with those and other folks from the Chilean competition community all left me quite impressed.  Its a knowledgeable and sophisticated but small community of folks who all know each other and are committed to bring real antitrust principles to a highly concentrated economy with many formal and informal connections between the families and the businesses which control much of the country's wealth. 

And then I went skiing.  Spring skiing in the Andres at 9,000-11,000 feet, only 30 miles from Santiago, but a two hour drive because of the endless switchbacks up and down the mountain.  The snow was a bit slushy but it was August (beginning of their spring and end of the ski season just a couple weeks away) and it was nearly 70 degrees with blinding sunshine.  Didn't get hurt, didn't get burned, and had some fun.  Long day though, all in all 13 hours door to door from my hotel for about 4-5 hours of skiing.

And then there was the Santiago 10K on Sunday.  Didn't know anything about it until I woke up on Sunday (kind of sore from skiing) and saw the main street blocked off and some runners either finishing or warming up.  The concierge told me there was a 5K, 10k, and a half marathon.  I saw the race start a few blocks from my hotel and head off in the other direction.  Based on the course map and my very imperfect sense of direction, I was able to connect with the 10K group about 1.5 miles into the race and follow them along the river past the art museum, through the Parc Forestal, across a bridge, and back down through swanky neighborhoods to finish in front of the Presidential Palace.  I ran about 35 minutes with the group that finished in about 45 so far more passed me than I passed but great fun.  Very surreal sight as dozens of the placid, but stray, dogs that inhabit Santiago would jump up and lope along with the packs of runners until they ran out of energy and were replaced by new dogs from different areas.

Have to think seriously about Santiago for a future antitrust marathon.  Nice city, good course routes, good food, many quality hotels, almost everybody speaks English, April annual marathon (our October), and would be easy to find reliable co-sponsors.  Downside is the smog which blankets the city most of the year and the expense and lengthy travel time to/from Santiago. 

FIsh stories about running

I'm OK with presidential or vice presidential candidates fudging the truth about the unemployment rates, about their roles in raising or not raising taxes, about their or other candidates' sexual deviancies -- whatever. I'm not OK with this. After a painful media idol-a-fest over Paul Ryan's apparently extraordinary level of fitness, it turns out he's inflated himself just a tad. Or by >25% -- a 4:01 marathon somehow became "under 3 hours."

To whom does that lie appeal? Ryan must be after Gary Johnson's five or six voters.