Great day for running

I had a great run today. 8.8 miles. I hadn't run all week, so I planned for a longer run than usual today. Getting out of the house was extremely tough, and I kept delaying. To be honest, I was pretty close to skipping it. I probably would have, if not for this half-commitment I've made to myself about running the Broad Street Run with ShoreTurtle in May. I'm not sure I'll actually do that race, but not running long today would have just blown away any option I had. So out I went.

Thankfully, the weather was just about perfect. I was overdressed with my jacket, and it ended up on my waist. I did a back, out, and back. Meaning that I did the same run as last week, but I added an extra little out and back in the opposite direction. You can see above where the finish is marked. I started out running west, and then doubled back to the east. It's really a nice little run which goes by the river, some horseback trails, and a golf course. I stretched twice along the way, but in general I felt pretty good. My splits in the non-stretching miles showed about 10 minute miles in the beginning, shortening to 9 and a half or so for the last few. So I was pretty happy about that.

Towards the end of my run, I heard a weird noise coming up behind me. I turned around and saw this guy running right behind me. It didn't sound right, and I guess my eyes were naturally drawn downwards. Sure enough he had one prosthetic leg, and that was making a running sound that was out of the ordinary. Unfortunately I was turning off then, and he was going straight. I would have had to struggle to keep up with him, but I'd have loved to find out more about him. Someone who takes adversity and kicks it in the butt like that is pretty amazing.

Anyway, next week is a 10k (6.2M) run. I'll plan to do one 4 miler during the week, to end up at 10 total. The weekend after that is a 4 mile race, so mayble I'll just do 4, 4, and 4 that week. The following week I can try and push the long run back up to 8 or 10, with some small runs during the week. I think some sort of plan like that will get me to Philly for 10 miles on May 7th. I've been having trouble getting in my runs with my new work schedule, so we'll see how it goes. Passover's also coming up, and that may interfere as well.

In non-running news I went back to see another hockey game tonight. My beloved Leafs were back in town again, to play the New Jersey Devils. They've been playing horribly lately, so I went with low expectations. It didn't help that they put this kid in net, who'd never played before.


1) exciting action
2) leafs kippa!

Turns out, he played really well. The Leafs got tons of penalties, and played much of the last 5 minutes shorthanded, including long stretched where they were down 2 men. They did give up one powerplay goal in that time, but managed to hang in there for the win.


1) three leafs in the box
2) congratulating goalie after the win