sha towers

HEre’s a view of my morning run along the canal in downtown Indy. Beautiful running weather (at 37 degrees!) but no rain like yesterday morning. Lots of great art and architecture along this path that you can see on this google map of the run:

http://goo.gl/maps/660fr

Ran across a phrase this weekend that spoke to me and that summed up nicely what running has meant for me lately. It was in an editorial by David Willey, Editor-in-Chief of Runner’s World magazine:

” . . . [I] felt my senses shift from desk-bound and stressed out to alert and alive.”

So yesterday I set out to run 4 miles, then decided I could do 6 or maybe 8. I was feeling good and my run took me toward Cameron Park. Then I figured, “why not turn this into a trail run?” (so I started down the River Trail in Cameron Park). Somewhere on this trail I got more energized and decided to make it an even 10 miles. The next thing I know, I’ve reached the end of the trail where it dumps out at McLennan Community College. From that point I thought, “If I just run a mile and a half more, it would make my run 13 miles (assuming I could make it home!) I’ve been training for a 1/2 marathon, shooting for running it in late Fall or early Spring, but the farthest I’d ever run before in a single run was 6.5 miles. I expected to eventually run a half marathon, in the future, at an official event (where the adrenaline and crowd would carry me along), with refueling stations, etc. I didn’t expect to end up doing it by myself, partly as a trail run, and on a whim — when I actually set out to just run 4 miles! Of course I’m hobbling around today like an old man, but at least I get to take it easy and not run today!

map of my run

as of this morning, long before the sun came up, i finished a goal of running 60 miles this month. that was the good part, the bad part was a speeding motorist that made me think he was going to hit me, so i moved way over, only to discover there’s a ditch alongside the road! my souvenir for my morning was a twisted ankle and a few bits of gravel stuck in my palm. grateful though it was only a minor souvenir!

this past weekend was my very first 10K run. started running again (after a very long hiatus) back in december. the run this past weekend (the Chasing Lions run in Temple, Texas) represented the farthest I’ve ever run before (6.2 miles). ran without stopping (afraid it would be too hard to start again!) but it wasn’t bad and I felt pretty good afterward. the weather was great (even a little cold at the start, which surprised me in mid may in texas!). finished in 1:02:42.2