Weekend
Long run yesterday. Met up with Deirdre at the Art Museum and the two of us ran this route good for just under 18.5 miles. Ran through Fairmount, Wynnefield and Overbrook, and ran down some new streets around St. Joe's University. Really wanted to get two and a half hours in running, had to do some looping around University City to do it. Made for a long final 15 minutes, but glad I stuck it out. Final finish time is 2:30:21.
I'm running stronger each week, and with it comes an awareness that the fall racing season is here. I'm feeling the urge, and more important the readiness to run again. Now I want to see where my times are at. I'm thinking just jump in a 5k, maybe next weekend. Looking at local race calendars and 5k's seem to be all there are. The obvious exception to that is the Philly Distance Run, but at $75 it is more than I want to spend on a race.
I also ran today with Tony. We are in NY spending the weekend at my mom's. Tony and I went to run at the North Rockland High School track. We can each run our own pace and distance there. We ignored the signs saying the track was under reconstruction and ran around the oval anyway. The track was but an asphalt slab laid down, I suppose, as a foundation for the spongy stuff that is yet to come. Figured we weren't damaging anything but our knees running on it. Nobody bothered us on it.
I started running on that track when it was still cinders. I must have been about Tony's age, in middle school. My mom would run there on a regular basis, meeting several friends. It must have been summer vacation when I'd started going along as well. They would run three miles. That distance seemed forever, I remember humidity, counting the laps, doing fractions with denominators of 12 (laps) as to how much I had done and had left to do, and running a bit faster than my mom and her friends, seeing if I could lap them as we all went around the oval. This was the 70's, the first running boom. I think one thing I remember from running with my mom was the camraderie she had with the group she'd run with. And I compare it to the good fortune I've had in most of my running tenure with good people I've run with. If you ask runners whether or not one of their parents ran, a large amount will respond affirmatively. Like alcoholism and pattern baldness, there seems to be a family component to running.
Which brings me back to Tony. He started while I was still getting ready and had about a half lap headstart. I didn't close any of this lead on the first few go-rounds, but then I started picking up the pace and he slowed down a bit. As I caught up to him I noted with satisfaction that he's got a smooth stride and good leg turnover, landing on his fore-foot and coming down on his entire foot before lifting off again. At 12 he's as tall as I am and much thinner. He'll be a good runner if he sticks with it. He ran six laps and walked a few more. I thought how I'd do more at his age but had to hush myself. I'm just warming him up to run with the school team in a week or so. That experience will have much to do with whether all this sticks or not. My middle school didn't have a cross country team. It was cut, budget cuts I believe, a year or two before I was old enough to run. Then the small private high school I attended didn't have a team either. I ran briefly in freshman year of college, middle of the pack in the few meets I ran, but after really bad shin splints never picked it up again. He's got an opportunity for a different trajectory here. I'll keep this blog posted on that.
Three miles today gives me 64 for the week. I'm very happy with that number but it is now so last week.
I'm running stronger each week, and with it comes an awareness that the fall racing season is here. I'm feeling the urge, and more important the readiness to run again. Now I want to see where my times are at. I'm thinking just jump in a 5k, maybe next weekend. Looking at local race calendars and 5k's seem to be all there are. The obvious exception to that is the Philly Distance Run, but at $75 it is more than I want to spend on a race.
I also ran today with Tony. We are in NY spending the weekend at my mom's. Tony and I went to run at the North Rockland High School track. We can each run our own pace and distance there. We ignored the signs saying the track was under reconstruction and ran around the oval anyway. The track was but an asphalt slab laid down, I suppose, as a foundation for the spongy stuff that is yet to come. Figured we weren't damaging anything but our knees running on it. Nobody bothered us on it.
I started running on that track when it was still cinders. I must have been about Tony's age, in middle school. My mom would run there on a regular basis, meeting several friends. It must have been summer vacation when I'd started going along as well. They would run three miles. That distance seemed forever, I remember humidity, counting the laps, doing fractions with denominators of 12 (laps) as to how much I had done and had left to do, and running a bit faster than my mom and her friends, seeing if I could lap them as we all went around the oval. This was the 70's, the first running boom. I think one thing I remember from running with my mom was the camraderie she had with the group she'd run with. And I compare it to the good fortune I've had in most of my running tenure with good people I've run with. If you ask runners whether or not one of their parents ran, a large amount will respond affirmatively. Like alcoholism and pattern baldness, there seems to be a family component to running.
Which brings me back to Tony. He started while I was still getting ready and had about a half lap headstart. I didn't close any of this lead on the first few go-rounds, but then I started picking up the pace and he slowed down a bit. As I caught up to him I noted with satisfaction that he's got a smooth stride and good leg turnover, landing on his fore-foot and coming down on his entire foot before lifting off again. At 12 he's as tall as I am and much thinner. He'll be a good runner if he sticks with it. He ran six laps and walked a few more. I thought how I'd do more at his age but had to hush myself. I'm just warming him up to run with the school team in a week or so. That experience will have much to do with whether all this sticks or not. My middle school didn't have a cross country team. It was cut, budget cuts I believe, a year or two before I was old enough to run. Then the small private high school I attended didn't have a team either. I ran briefly in freshman year of college, middle of the pack in the few meets I ran, but after really bad shin splints never picked it up again. He's got an opportunity for a different trajectory here. I'll keep this blog posted on that.
Three miles today gives me 64 for the week. I'm very happy with that number but it is now so last week.
posted by seebo | 7:19 PM
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