There's a classic line at the start of Woody Allen's movie "Love & Death" where he says "there comes a time in every mans life when he had so die...for me that's 6am.....should have been 5am but got a smart lawyer, got leniency...." that's how this weekend felt.......
I pushed back Saturdays all important " long run" to Sunday if for no other reason to delay the inevitable, I already knew what was in store for me, there was no miracle waiting irregardless of which day I ran.
Out by 8.10am, I should be grateful after several weeks I had finally gotten out there on the weekend, I have one more weekend b4 Dublin and then it's five successive weekends of races b4 a weekend race free and then the season finale on Sun Dec 8th, conditions were sunny and mild although I did eventually work up a good sweat by the time I reached Fairmount Park
8.10 for the opening mile, a tad brisk but the opening mile often is, I opted for the Powelton Ave route to 31st/Mantua Ave then a left on to 34th St towards to Philadelphia Zoo and the Lansdowne Dr to get up to Fairmount Park, 8.32 at mile 2 and at this point it all felt it was going to plan...... just after I turned onto 31st St at roughly 2.77 miles I began to "suck air" it's possible the 8.10-8.32 opening 2 miles had something to do w/ that but sadly too often in recent weeks/months I have felt I'm struggling to breathe, during the Summer I blamed the humidity but I can't use that as an excuse any longer in mid October, what the issue is I don't know it doesn't present it's self in any other area of my day to day life I live on the third floor I don't get winded going up the steps, I constantly walk a flight of stairs to the 22nd floor at work, no issue and on any given day at work I'm required to walk several city blocks to make deliveries or pick ups, again no issues until I run, the kick in the bollix is I always joke that the two requirements to be a good runner are a good respirartory system....and a full frontal lobotomy cause we have to be out of our ever loving minds to not only do what we do...but love doing it......
I got going again pretty soon after stopping and clocked 9.37 at mile 3, normally when I stop running I stop the Garmin but I figured I'd just let it run, I was that unconfident of getting 16 miles in.....9.32 at mile 4 again I felt good and hoped the early stop was a result of the opening two splits being a tad brisk.....the uphill on Lansdowne Ave is often a tough incline when I'm 100% today I had to stop and walk b4 making the turn to Avenue Of The Republic, 10.13 at mile 5 the writing was truly on the wall but I wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet so rather than just head home via Belmont Avenue I continued towards the Mann Music Center but after rounding the statue at States Drive I turned back down Avenue Of The Republic rather than my usual route towards Fairmount Park via States Dr and crossing Belmont Ave
10.42 at mile 6 now it was just a war of attrition to make it home I was reminded of a Charles Barkley comment during the 92 Olympics when the NBA Dream Team represented Team USA in the Basketball" no you can't have an autograph, no you can't have a photograph, no you can't have my jersey, take your beatin' and go home"........
12.27 at mile 7 insult to injury I stopped the Garmin at the junction on Lansdowne Ave and Girard Ave to wait for the lights in my favour but upon resuming my run I guess I didn't hit the restart button so the next 400m/600m I ran went unrecorded......great don't even get credit for the distance ran......
12.07 at mile 8 after turning onto Powelton Ave, I had some Pitbull barking at me from the passenger seat of a passing car I did laugh to myself it must've been an Israeli Pitbull since I was wearing my Palestine running vest to brake it for for Dublin......
10.20 at mile 9 I called it a day there I still had less than a mile to get home but didn't feel like doing loops around the block to round out another mile 1.31.38 in 10.11 mile pace, hardly earth shattering but it is what it is, a classic case of trying to make a Silk purse out of a Pig's ear........
SO where does this leave me? I'm woefully short of miles for Dublin but I'm going to do it, I was already resigned to it being my slowest ever marathon to begin w/ so I may as well try and enjoy it w/out the pressure of worrying about time, if I was signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon on Nov 24th I may have time to "pull a Rabbit out of the hat" but 'm not and I don't, Dublin will be what it is but it will springboard me to the remaining six races of the Fall Road Race season
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