Running without my Feet

As my runs have been getting shorter lately so have my posts. Today this trend continues.

I made today's run functional, as I ran down to the Convention Center to go the Expo and pick up my shit for the Phila Distance Run tomorrow. Charlotte Martin pacing me on the iPod as I negotiated the Center City streets. I met Kevin F. down there and we picked up what we had to get and then got away from the moneychangers in the temple as fast as we could. We then sat down for a spot of coffee and I ran home. Didn't bother timing it, I'll call it six miles total.

This gives me 63 miles total in the scant two weeks since Virginia Beach. Most of the time I get more than that in for a week. But the difference here is that I knew in advance that the miles would come tough here. And so I'm now curious as to how well I will subsist on borrowed training - whether the training I have amassed over the summer will still be with me in sufficient force to have a good day tomorrow.

I want to do the same strategy as I did in Virginia Beach, take it easy for the first two miles and race the remaining 11. Bonus points if there is somebody or some pack that I can glom onto for the first miles. I just want to move my whole pacing regimen down, across the race, by about 5-10 seconds a mile. That'll get me in the 1:15s or, if the day is right, the 1:14's.

And then I will be in the promised land. Or washed on your shore and barely alive. Something about half-marathons. . . short enough to be fast; long enough to be punishing. Something foreboding on a Saturday afternoon.

Here I am in my insecurity
Here I am with my damaged dignity
Here I am you’re pulling me in too deep
Here I am
Here I am, I’m in the mercy seat
Here I am, running without my feet
Here I am, oh what’s come over me
Here I am
(Charlotte Martin)

And here I am, and tomorrow I'll see. And so will you, as I'll have a full race report in my next post, by which time I'll be heading out to Denver.