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

Just What DO We Have Here, Anyway???

One of the joys of the Pre-Dawn Patrol [now simply “Dawn” as the sun is cresting the trees shortly after I set out, so I'm dropping the "Pre-" until Fall] is picking up the scents of the morning, before the gentle environment is too corrupted by cars exhausts and diesel fumes. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to inhale and decipher the subtleties of morning dew, grass clippings from lawns that had been cut yesterday, recently overturned dirt in the neighborhood gardens.

And of course, the flowers coming to life now that Spring is finally settled and we move toward Summer [Spring in New Jersey can last six weeks of six minutes, depending on when the Rain stops and the first Heat Wave arrives]

"Gotta gotta GOTTA get up and run tomorrow morning ... the wisteria bloomed all of a sudden last week, and I STILL haven't gotten in my Pre-Dawn run with it"

Once you put something like that out, you're committed!!!

Last Friday, I woke up a little later than I had wanted to [but still, MUCH earlier than I have been in the week post-Broad Street] therefore I had to short myself to only 3 miles; but I selected a route that had maximum purple-ness. Not a cloud to be seen, a brilliant sunrise, a nice dampness in the air, even some dewy-ness on the lawns around town. I even saw a sprinkler running down the block off-course; I'll make a note of this for later in the summer, when warmy & muggy morning sprinkler dashes will be necessary.

Between the fading of the wisteria and the blooming of the honeysuckle, there are trees that produce a most lovely and fragrant cluster of white flowers. I’ve seen these trees bloom every Spring since I started running; and they often take me back to my v1.0 running “career” in Philly.

However, not ONCE have I ever stopped to find out what kind of tree they were.

As I was on my way out my development this morning, that very thought occurred to me. I said to myself “Self. I think we should REALLY try to find out what those trees are”

I VERY consciously hit the brakes as I approached a stand of them, and did my best Darwin impersonation:

Flowers: Long white bunches, like a lei
Leaves: Oval and offset on opposite sides on a middle stem; sort of like a fern does
Too early in the season to tell if it produces a fruit or a nut, oh, wait … there’s these long bean-y looking things on the ground; probably from last Fall

'Okay, I think I got enough to go on here.'

However, while the Left Side of my Brain was trying to distill these elements into simple, discrete terms for a proper Google search, the Right Side of my Brain took another approach.

Right Brain: Streets in Philadelphia … Spruce? Pine? Cypress? Nope, not an evergreen. Walnut? Chestnut? Nope, not a nut. Cherry? No way. It’s either Poplar or Locust. I’m picking Locust; I don’t think Poplars have flowers.
Left Brain: Good. Glad we got THAT settled ~sigh~

***

Robinia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, native to North America and northern Mexico. Commonly known as "locusts", they are deciduous trees and shrubs growing 4-25 m tall. The leaves are pinnate with 7-21 oval leaflets. The flowers are white or pink, in usually pendulous racemes. Many species have thorny shoots, and several have sticky hairs on the shoots.

The genus is named after the royal French gardeners Jean Robin and his son Vespasian Robin, who introduced the plant to Europe in 1601.

The number of species is disputed between different authorities, with as few as four recognized by some authors, while others recognize up to ten species. There are also several natural hybrids.
Some species of Robinia are used as food by larvae of Lepidoptera, including Brown-tail, Buff-tip, The Engrailed and Giant Leopard Moth




Yep, that’s them. I’m not sure which exact species they might be [the top contenders are “Honey Locust” and “Black Locust”] but at least one mystery is solved

***

"You can drag a horticulture, but you can't make her think.” Dorothy Parker

1989 Called ...

Post-race pick from my FIRST attempt at Broad Street, 1989, taken on the grass inside JFK Stadium

Items of note:

USA Today trucker hat
Fake Porsche sunglasses
Crazy long hair [a mullet actually, but you can't really tell with the hat]
St. Pauli Girl beer [a premium beverage for me at that time]
Freestyle Shark running watch
Acid "washed" cotton sweats
NIKE hi-tops w/Scott Tinley Lace Locks ["Miami Vice" aqua]

Time: 1:19 and change [this was NOT, however, my FIRST 10-miler]