Maryland Campaign
I spent a bit of time yesterday writing about Taneytown and how it was a staging area for Meade in the days prior to Gettysburg. This fascinated me and prompted me to read a little bit more about where I was running to as I plot my daily mileage out on gmap-pedometer and virtually travel somewhere with all of these miles I run in circles day after day.
So on my way to Antietam I went back about a year in time to 1862 when Lee took the Eastern theater of the Civil War up north into Maryland to both put a little pressure on Washington DC and to take the war out of Virginia and give the Southerners a respite. This cat-and-mouse running around Maryland became known as the Maryland Campaign, and culminated at the Battle of Antietam, where I should arrive in a couple of days. The tactics of this battle, and the overall campaign, are a bit hard to understand, and hopefully I'll get a better grip on them as I get closer to the battlefield. I linked on part of a website yesterday that I am continuing to use for my information on all this, www.civilwarhome.com, which is an excellent resource both in that it provides volumes of source material as well as briefer pieces where the webmaster, "Shotgun," digests it all for newbies like me.
Unfortunately I can't continue on the map where I trace my route through Maryland (scroll back a few days and you can see the latest version) as my internet connection is slow today, as it often is when we get alot of rain.
Which brings me to today's run. It was one of those come up with a course at the last minute deals. I originally wanted to go at 8:15 and do a "Doppel Looper" - twice around the Drives - but at 7 am there was the sound of rain pounding against the windows and I rolled over and slept to about 8:30. Cindy and I went out for the Philly Runners' 9:30 run, and I told her not to wait for me, I'll find my own way home.
In front of the Art Museum I teamed up with Craig and he paced me at a 7:25 clip around the drives for one loop (8.5 miles). This was fortunate, not only for the pacing but for the company that Craig provided. When we got back to the Art Museum he called it a day and I headed back up to MLK. The four miles up to the Falls River Bridge (for the second time) were a miserable affair, as the rain picked up and my legs wore down. Also slowed to a 7:50 pace. Then it was up the "BN" and back home through Fairmount, which I now know is exactly six miles, which means about an 8 minute pace. Total then is 18.5 and a long, slow run, which I really didn't have planned but worked out well. The latter part of the course picked up, as I got a second wind that was perhaps due to the GU I took at mile 10. I'm beginning to get sold on the usefulness of these things. The rain also stopped, leaving a comfortable mildness in its wake.
So the whole course, 18.5 miles, was run in 2:24:46. I measured the last 10 miles of the course here (might as well link to it as I plotted it out) and I already know the loop (with a little extra) is 8.5 miles.
Tonight is Philly Runners annual dinner, which I'm going to for the first time, and if I get in 10ish tomorrow I can finish the week in the mid 70's, not bad given I took Thursday off.
And finally, I saw Cindy as we were almost back to the Art Museum and to my amazement she was running. Only to get back to the car more quickly, she assured me later, but it turns out she ran more than 2 miles of her walking course today. Gotta encourage that, but not in a too open way (gotta know Cindy to understand that).
So on my way to Antietam I went back about a year in time to 1862 when Lee took the Eastern theater of the Civil War up north into Maryland to both put a little pressure on Washington DC and to take the war out of Virginia and give the Southerners a respite. This cat-and-mouse running around Maryland became known as the Maryland Campaign, and culminated at the Battle of Antietam, where I should arrive in a couple of days. The tactics of this battle, and the overall campaign, are a bit hard to understand, and hopefully I'll get a better grip on them as I get closer to the battlefield. I linked on part of a website yesterday that I am continuing to use for my information on all this, www.civilwarhome.com, which is an excellent resource both in that it provides volumes of source material as well as briefer pieces where the webmaster, "Shotgun," digests it all for newbies like me.
Unfortunately I can't continue on the map where I trace my route through Maryland (scroll back a few days and you can see the latest version) as my internet connection is slow today, as it often is when we get alot of rain.
Which brings me to today's run. It was one of those come up with a course at the last minute deals. I originally wanted to go at 8:15 and do a "Doppel Looper" - twice around the Drives - but at 7 am there was the sound of rain pounding against the windows and I rolled over and slept to about 8:30. Cindy and I went out for the Philly Runners' 9:30 run, and I told her not to wait for me, I'll find my own way home.
In front of the Art Museum I teamed up with Craig and he paced me at a 7:25 clip around the drives for one loop (8.5 miles). This was fortunate, not only for the pacing but for the company that Craig provided. When we got back to the Art Museum he called it a day and I headed back up to MLK. The four miles up to the Falls River Bridge (for the second time) were a miserable affair, as the rain picked up and my legs wore down. Also slowed to a 7:50 pace. Then it was up the "BN" and back home through Fairmount, which I now know is exactly six miles, which means about an 8 minute pace. Total then is 18.5 and a long, slow run, which I really didn't have planned but worked out well. The latter part of the course picked up, as I got a second wind that was perhaps due to the GU I took at mile 10. I'm beginning to get sold on the usefulness of these things. The rain also stopped, leaving a comfortable mildness in its wake.
So the whole course, 18.5 miles, was run in 2:24:46. I measured the last 10 miles of the course here (might as well link to it as I plotted it out) and I already know the loop (with a little extra) is 8.5 miles.
Tonight is Philly Runners annual dinner, which I'm going to for the first time, and if I get in 10ish tomorrow I can finish the week in the mid 70's, not bad given I took Thursday off.
And finally, I saw Cindy as we were almost back to the Art Museum and to my amazement she was running. Only to get back to the car more quickly, she assured me later, but it turns out she ran more than 2 miles of her walking course today. Gotta encourage that, but not in a too open way (gotta know Cindy to understand that).
posted by seebo | 1:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home