Happy Fourth
Got back from out of town yesterday. My silence on the blog doesn't mean, however, I haven't been running.
Saturday I went out to Rockland Lake to run with the Rockland Road Runners. The run starts at 7:00, probably because soon thereafter the park charges $6.00 admission. Anyway, they did what I have never seen any club do, and that is leave at 7 on the dot. I was walking out of the restroom just at that time and there was this group of about 20, taking off. My mouth dropped and I checked them out and nobody looked to be running my pace, so I let them go and went to plan B. Plan B was to run three times around the 3.1'ish mile course around the lake. This was the course that I first ran with my mom when I was about 13. Once was plenty then, today I did three loops, looking to do each one faster than the last. Total time was 9.5 miles in 65:48, with the splits for the loops in 22:37; 21:04, and 20:28.
Yesterday I planned to run a 14 mile loop in Harriman State Park, but made the mistake of not running it first thing in the morning. One delay led to another and I didn't get around to running until I was back in Philly in the late afternoon. Running on a late Sunday afternoon on a three day weekend is being in interstitial time. It had a different feel to it as the position of the sun, the day's cumulative heat and humidity, and the people finishing up their day running all felt different. I felt like the run was penance for my sins, and kept it at a pace where I was pushing. First 4 miles on the drives were in 29:23; second 4 were in 28:31. Finished up at the pool club feeling caked in a particularly salinated sweat. 15 miles in 1:55:59. 8 pool laps to recover. I also ran by the Art Museum steps with the big stage from yesterday's Live 8 show still up, up for the Elton John concert and fireworks tonight. Again in interstitial time. Getting the stage view I could really see what a bad venue it is, as the audience area only starts 200 or so meters away from the stage and both sides are flanked by large trees. The audience thus can only snake down Ben Franklin Parkway to City Hall and beyond. Surely there must be a better venue.
Today I met up with E, a bit later than usual, and headed for Cobbs Creek. She found a track out there, behind the pool near where Spruce Street crosses CC Parkway. Turns out that track is a generous word for it, as it is a relatively narrow (about 3 lanes) amoeba shaped loop that, judging by the time it took to do a loop, should be pretty close to 400 meters. From there we ran some trails to some riding stables along the creek and then crossed the creek into Delaware County where we took some backroads, cut through a cemetary, ended up on Baltimore Pike and took the trail alongside the CC Parkway. Then it was Woodland all the way back home. Cobbs Creek is such an excellent area to run, and we had it all to ourselves. That run took about 88 minutes, conservatively I'm calling it ten miles as we stopped a few times for navigation and fence climbing purposes.
Saturday I went out to Rockland Lake to run with the Rockland Road Runners. The run starts at 7:00, probably because soon thereafter the park charges $6.00 admission. Anyway, they did what I have never seen any club do, and that is leave at 7 on the dot. I was walking out of the restroom just at that time and there was this group of about 20, taking off. My mouth dropped and I checked them out and nobody looked to be running my pace, so I let them go and went to plan B. Plan B was to run three times around the 3.1'ish mile course around the lake. This was the course that I first ran with my mom when I was about 13. Once was plenty then, today I did three loops, looking to do each one faster than the last. Total time was 9.5 miles in 65:48, with the splits for the loops in 22:37; 21:04, and 20:28.
Yesterday I planned to run a 14 mile loop in Harriman State Park, but made the mistake of not running it first thing in the morning. One delay led to another and I didn't get around to running until I was back in Philly in the late afternoon. Running on a late Sunday afternoon on a three day weekend is being in interstitial time. It had a different feel to it as the position of the sun, the day's cumulative heat and humidity, and the people finishing up their day running all felt different. I felt like the run was penance for my sins, and kept it at a pace where I was pushing. First 4 miles on the drives were in 29:23; second 4 were in 28:31. Finished up at the pool club feeling caked in a particularly salinated sweat. 15 miles in 1:55:59. 8 pool laps to recover. I also ran by the Art Museum steps with the big stage from yesterday's Live 8 show still up, up for the Elton John concert and fireworks tonight. Again in interstitial time. Getting the stage view I could really see what a bad venue it is, as the audience area only starts 200 or so meters away from the stage and both sides are flanked by large trees. The audience thus can only snake down Ben Franklin Parkway to City Hall and beyond. Surely there must be a better venue.
Today I met up with E, a bit later than usual, and headed for Cobbs Creek. She found a track out there, behind the pool near where Spruce Street crosses CC Parkway. Turns out that track is a generous word for it, as it is a relatively narrow (about 3 lanes) amoeba shaped loop that, judging by the time it took to do a loop, should be pretty close to 400 meters. From there we ran some trails to some riding stables along the creek and then crossed the creek into Delaware County where we took some backroads, cut through a cemetary, ended up on Baltimore Pike and took the trail alongside the CC Parkway. Then it was Woodland all the way back home. Cobbs Creek is such an excellent area to run, and we had it all to ourselves. That run took about 88 minutes, conservatively I'm calling it ten miles as we stopped a few times for navigation and fence climbing purposes.
posted by seebo | 1:15 PM
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