My injury is much worse that I (and my doctor, I guess), thought. No O for a while, I guess. Its tough to accept, and in retrospect thinking I could run the Stumble was a mistake. Missing the Highlander will be tough to swallow, I guess we can hope for a miracle cure over the next week. I may walk the first couple loops.

I stumbled around to an uninspiring 6th place in the Stumble. About what I expected. 2nd place was reachable if I were 100%. Eddie had a great run and was not reachable, at least by me. The thing about injuries is you think about them the whole race, and your navigation suffers also. One thing I will say about the Stumble is that I thought Mihai's course setting was excellent; its a shame I could not enjoy it. The map is a big horse blanket at 1:10; no way I can scan it.

My goal now has to be to be 100% for the Trot. The last time I was injured I passed the time by finding obscure bands and writing about them. Today's band is "The Gathering", a symphonic black metal outfit out of Holland. They are quite good, sort of a cross between atmospheric prog metal, pink floyd, with a female singer somewhere between Terri Nunn (Berlin) and Annie Haslan (Renaissance), but quite distinct in her own right. One commentator mentioned Tool influences, but I don't hear it. (No one sounds like Tool, and no one ever will, but that is a topic for another day).

While the singer, Anneke van Giersbergen, is of course the focal point of the sound, her bandmates are quite talented, unlike outfits like Evanescence which feature a stunning singer but a weak backing band. Of the songs I checked out, I think my favorite was "Eleanor", but all were good. I ordered a couple of albums, so we'll see.

Well, I don't see a future for me as a music critic, so I probably won't write much here until I can race effectively again. Hopefully that will be in a week or two.