The First Run of the Rest of My Life

Well, my plans are set to do the Run for Clean Air on the 21st, the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon on the 29th, and, if I still have legs left by then, Broad St on the week after that. I was concerned about the short time period between now and the 29th, which is really my target race now, but GP says that it should be plenty of time to move up to this distance. So I'm set.

With that I took off today with a new mindset that I'm assuming is going to emphasize mileage alot more. I ran the Tinicum loop this morning, and pushed the pace a bit (always asking myself "What Would Ian Run") until I hit Tinicum, where I went all out tempo. Tinicum isn't the Drives, where the miles are measured by the quarter, so I had to pick landmarks about a mile apart and take splits. These splits will only start to have meaning when I run them a few times and can gauge what are fast times. But until then:

Warm Up (to Lindbergh Ave entrance of Tinicum): 39:35 (a sub 40 at this point will be a benchmark)
Tinicum Entrance to Lookout/Makeout Tower: 5:49
L/MT to trail fork by I-95: 5:47
TF to 1 mile exit sign (on I-95): 6:02
1MES to Yellow Gas Pipe past bridge: 5:50

This concluded my tempo run, and also my timing as I hit "stop" on my watch instead of "split". But I hit this loop 5-10 minutes faster than I usually do, easy. The drawback to this is that I feel like I'm stampeding through the park and as a result become largely oblivious to the morning symphony of birds and other creatures around me. Even with that, I scared up a sharp shinned hawk and a great blue heron. For the second straight run, I haven't seen red tailed hawks where I usually see them, and I'm thinking they may have moved north with the warmer weather. But even at Super Power Ranger Ninja Turtle (no cheetah) pace, the signs of Spring are unmistakeable.

10.5 miles, timing aborted at YGP in 63:04 and a breakfast that couldn't be beat afterwards.