Fair Exchange Is No Robbery

That was an old expression my father used from time to time....one of the few printable ones I can use!
It's appropriate for today,the game plan going in to the day was to run 13 miles today and 16 miles tomorrow....however mid way through the run along West River Drive it became evident that a rethink was in order.
Not only had several stretches of West River Drive not been cleared which meant conditions were difficult underfoot bordering on treacherous but it also meant that the quarter mile markers were obscured which was going to be a problem,I could find the turnaround on my 10 mile run w/ my eyes closed on either drive which shows up as either 3/4 on Kelly Drive or 6 & 3/4 on West River Drive so I opted to not only make today my 16 miler but this would also allow me to scope out Kelly Drive in the hope that was a little more cleared off at the very least and I could see the markers for tomorrows 13 miler.

In spite of the snow there were a few intrepid souls out there today,conditions were grey and overcast but 34 degrees and comfortable to run in.
Although I'm far from loving the snow right now it made for a picturesque view along either drive several stretches of the Schuylkill river are frozen which obviously wreaks havoc for the rowers who normally row on the river and when you think of it along those terms it makes you appreciate being able to get out and run.

Briefly coming down Kelly Drive it looked like I might've gotten myself in to a pissing contest w/ another runner,coming off of Falls Bridge at 8 miles I looked up along Kelly Drive to see a runner a fair distance ahead of me and in fairness I may not've caught him had he not stopped to talk to someone just prior to the 3 mile marker or mile 9 of the run but now I had him in my cross hairs and drew along side him.
It's funny you can overtake dozens of runners on a training run and get different responses this afternoon I got a "I don't think so" from the "Texas Longhorn"{he had a tan t shirt w/ the Texas Longhorn log on the back} as I drew along side him and thus began a quarter mile mano e mano battle between the pair of us,neither one backing down from the other neither one willing to allow the other to get ahead however either I broke him as we approached Strawberry Mansion bridge or he just said "feck it you can have it" and I never saw or heard him again.

While I may've won the battle I still had 7 miles of my run to go and it was going to be a real kick in the arse if I'd shot my load to get get ahead of him...however in week 16 of my training I think I'm more than capable of seeing out a 16 miler even if at times I've had to slush my way along the course and mix it up a little w/ a fellow runner,but as they say down under"no worries mate" and I was able to cruise through the final 6 miles w/out any problems to notch my 13th 16 miler in the last 16 weeks
I saw the 2 & a 1/4 marker for tomorrows turn around to run 13 miles which will give me another 50 mile week which given I lost two days to the snow and ran a 400m race yesterday is remarkable if I say so myself.