September 11th Weekend

It was a weekend of remembrance. We are and shall always be free.

On Saturday I completed my four hour run. The weather was just right - 58 degrees and clear. I was under a time crunch, but it wasn’t to see how fast I could run. See, I agreed to help with a 5K race in my hometown in the morning.

The race director was nice enough to put the “50 Steps to a Healthier Future” brochure in the runners’ packets. Getting out at 4:00 am will allow me enough time to get to the race, so there was no time to waste.

The night before, I asked Jenn if she was willing to take some pictures of me running. It’s been awhile since I’ve added any new photos. I promised that it would be at the end of the run so I would not drag her out of bed too early. We agreed on 7:30.

Less than a mile into my run, I attempted to get some fantastic pictures of the moon. Unfortunately, my phone takes cruddy pictures so they were not worth keeping. Pictures would not have done them justice anyway. There, I feel better about not getting them. 

As I stopped to take moon shot – the one in the sky that is - a car stops at the intersection behind me and just waited. That’s bizarre, I thought. There’s no traffic and the car was not moving. Shortly after, it slowly came up from behind. I felt strange....

When something feels strange and I get a bad gut feeling, I go with what my gut says. Okay, what’s the plan? Oh yeah, run dingbat– that’s what I’m already doing - just change direction. As it turned out, it was a police officer. He/she was probably drawn by my flashing red light on the hydration pack, wondering who the heck would be out here at this hour with a flashing light. Whew! I’m glad the gut was wrong. Now that I’m mentioning cars pulling up from behind, the newspaper carriers have a habit of scaring me by driving up behind on the wrong side to deliver the paper - so unnerving.

I continued pushing along, enjoying the cool air. Lawn sprinklers going on breaking the morning silence, causing me to flinch. Then during an emergency pit-stop, in the dark, I inadvertently stepped into a puddle resulting in a wet foot. This is not what I needed. Hopefully this won’t cause a blister. Onward bound.

17 miles into the run my Garmin pooped out. Darn it, not again! I know the battery should be fine. Fortunately I had my Timex Ironman watch on the other arm keeping my time. A mile later, the Garmin decided to come back - fickle thing.

 

Stay away from the light!
Water blocking my way.



At mile 18 I ran into a roadblock. My usual path was blocked by high waters. Since I was not training for a triathlon or carrying a life vest, I opted to do an about face and find another route - a welcome change for someone so routine.

 With 35 minutes left, I called Jenn at 7:25 am allowing her enough time to get out the door and meet me. 

God bless America!



In the end, the wet foot did not cause a blister and I survived unnerving events and enjoyed the running scenery.

As for the 5K race, Jenn decided to join me, which was a treat. We were assigned the water station half-way through the race. A nice neighbor across the street decided to help and even provided a trash bag and rake to help pick up the cups strewn on the ground. Thanks neighbor. We had a great time and the race was for a great cause on the 9-11 weekend.



Chugging along at mile 24



I was not able to get my Sunday run in. My left Achilles area was sore so I decided now is a good time to recover. It's far enough away from the 50 mile day. Normally I would fret over a setback, but I’m used to it. Rarely do I go through a training program without a body part malfunctioning. Today, there is no aching while walking, only when I attempted to run. Even if I needed to not run until Saturday, that will be fine.

A Helpful Neighbor. Me wearing a Boston Marathon shirt hoping to register for 2012.