getting faster

and here's are my 2009 chicago marathon split times: mile by mile.  this race was one minute short of qualifying me for boston:

1. 06:14  
2. 07:11
3. 07:29  
4. 06:16 
5. 06:33
6. 06:38
7. 06:43
8. 06:40
9. 06:57
10. 06:59 
11. 07:05
12. 06:58
13. 07:07
14. 07:13
15. 07:12
16. 07:10 
17. 07:14  
18. 07:18 
19. 07:18  
20. 07:12 
21. 07:16  
22. 07:07 
23. 07:22  
24. 08:05 
25. 09:13  
26. 09:22

ouch! that's a pretty nasty fade at the end, huh?

ran a good, fast 10 miles with one of my residency chiefs saturday, which felt like one of my first quality long runs this training cycle. despite the heat and the hills, i'm getting close to marathon pace when i'm putting out high moderate effort. it feels like i'm going to make my goal time at philly this year. here's what it looked like:

my shift sunday night was a great contrast to last nights' shift. sunday night was slower than average, and although i was working with some great folks (shout out to KS), it just wasn't doing it for me. last night, on the other hand, was busy as hell. lots of sick people and several nasty traumas. despite the chaos of the ED, i felt like i was actually helping people and learning at the same time. got to do an IJ line and lanced a peri-tonsilar abcess under ultrasound guidance. more about that later. it's a supremely cool procedure.

two of the things that i specifically wanted to get in residency were reducing unstable fractures and managing peritonsilar abcesses on my own. at the county hospital where i previously worked, there wasn't all the specialized help that's available at university hospital. having previously worked out in the community away from the ivory tower of medicine gave me a good perspective, i think, on what i really NEED to know to practice emergency medicine in the real world.

more on that procedure later, but now's time for my easy 4 miler. excited to have the evening off tomorrow: farmer's market, housestaff council meeting, and evening with livvie!