Open Letter to my Morning Run

Dear Dawn;

Starting tomorrow, we won’t be running together for a while. My schedule’s gonna take a bit of a shift for the Summer and although I’ll still be getting up at the same time as always, the unfortunate truth is that I won’t have enough time in the morning for even a short meet-up with you.

It turns out that if I’m going to do any training at all, I’ll have to return to my after-work roots; firing up the Sunset Gun and hitting the track for a couple dozen laps [instead of trucking all over the Gayborhood and UPenn]. You know how I’ve always missed those jogs under the sky-blue pink skies around 6 or 7 o’clock back in the evening when I lived in Philly … well now I get to do them all over again, and share them with D’Kid this time around. How awesome will that be??? Sure, I’ll just be running in circles, while she does her Summer Reading on the bleachers, but she’s a great coach and trainer; she ALWAYS makes sure I’m properly fueled and hydrated and has been known to miscount my laps accidently on purpose to ensure a good session.

I wish there was another solution. Getting up even earlier than I already do on workdays was out of the question; 9PM is NOT a reasonable bedtime for a Husband or Dad, just to get a few miles in at like 4:30AM. I DO have my priorities.

Granted, things were not the easiest when we first started hanging out back in the Winter of 2000. Maybe that had something to do with The Big Quit, I dunno??? But after returning to running, the past few years have been great and the whole family appreciates the Endorphin Therapy we’ve been cultivating.

This is NOT a permanent change; only until September, when D’Kid goes back to school. In the meantime, I’ll try to get some Sunrise-ish miles in on the weekends [not promising, though. We’ve got some bike training to do , as well]. Who knows … without the “I gotta stop and get home” derailments that can mess up a good groove, I have the flexibility to go longer or faster training after work than I could before. When we reconvene, I might even be a better runner for it???

To be totally cliché … See you in September

R

National Running Day 2011

On National Running Day, it bears repeating ... Please consider those who are less fortunate, less mobile ... for those of us who run, walk or ride for Causes such as MS, MDA, ACS, and so on, we see "but for the Grace of God, go I"

Take a moment to offer a prayer to those who really WANTED to Run today ... maybe later today, or tomorrow, or on the weekend; do One More Mile, for one of them

Runnerversary 2011

As is Customary on my Runnerversary, I have scrubbed the Databases and Running Logs. I have reconciled the results to my OWN satisfaction and am NOW Closing the Book on the 2010-2011 Running Year [June 1, 2010 - May 31, 2011]

Mileage-wise, it was a disappointing year [only 500-something miles run] but factoring about 6 weeks of injury lay-off from the Big POING!!! I guess I did Okay.

The obvious highlight to the year was [without a doubt] the Inaugural Black Friday 20K Solo Relay. Not ONLY did I finally COMPLETE La Tortuga's 4x5x6, but I got some of my new online friends to join in the fun.

My only other bib-wearing event was Broad Street. I didn't do as well as I planned originally, but then again ... let's be honest ... I didn't exactly train my best for it either. I did barely 60% of the mileage I had sketched out in February, and only ONE run longer than 6 miles in the whole training cycle. As Theia put it [quite facetiously, I might add]: "Always a good idea to race on raw ability alone. :)"

We WON’T make that mistake again!!!

I got an email today from a friend of mine addressing my “attitude” towards training and competition and such:

Pete
Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know you're my running hero. You've got about the best relationship with the sport of anyone I know.

Pete’s an accomplished marathoner, and he’s calling ME his hero??? Pretty high praise for this Landlocked Old Surfer Dude.

Well, Pete … I’m planning to continue on kinda the same way as always, so enjoy