Matter over Mind

Strawberry Mansion Bridge Loop, 11.5 mile version (tacked on the extra .5 so that I could run three marked miles on MLK). 91:42.

Ran early today as I had to accompany C. to dental surgery. Felt at the outset that I didn’t have much today, but I consoled myself by thinking that at least it was not oral surgery. Usual checkpoints at Hamilton/38^th, Lombard & 23^rd, and the south end of MLK all took a few minutes longer to get to than I would have liked, and I was already looking for excuses not to do the three tempo miles I had planned. But I let it rip and to my surprise cranked out three strong miles: 5:45; 5:43 & 5:42. About five minutes in I noticed how grimaced my face was and my left arm was all twisted up like it was palsied, so I spoke relaxing things to myself and talked myself into a rhythm, although a tough, very anaerobic one. Nonetheless, the results speak for themselves, and it was a good thing my legs didn’t listen to my mind telling them how shitty they supposedly felt. The remaining four miles home reverted to trudging pace, and I basically ran 11.5 miles to do a good 3.

Race alert. As part of C’s resolution to have the family run a 5k a month, the family will run some local 5k in Wilmington on Saturday. This goes against my normal rule of avoiding any 5k’s where required travel time exceeds the time spent running, but its slim pickings this time of year and I know better than to get in the way of one of her resolutions. That means T will race his second 5k. C. bought him a pair of running shoes for the occasion. His sneakers have zippers instead of laces which kept coming unzipped in his previous race. M. has guitar lessons on Sat. and was hardly bummed to have to miss the run. Huffing and puffing to run 5:45’s this morning, I can’t see how I’ll get a sub 17 time on Saturday, but I know better than to compare workouts to races. Nonetheless, I will hedge on my performance by calling this (and the NE Roadrunner’s Winter 10k on Kelly Dr. on March 6) my pre-season races. The Cesar Rodney Half Marathon, on March 13 in Wilmington, will kick off the Spring season. The only other race I plan to run before Boston is the Bancroft 5k (the family March 5k), one of those races where a sub-17 time will fail to win any hardware for anyone under 70, on March 19.

So now I got to update my little “Upcoming Races” links in the left column. Stay tuned.