Reports of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated....

 "Well look down yonder ,Gabriel put your feet on the land and the sea but Gabriel don't you blow your trumpet ,till you hear it from me there ain't no grave can hold my body down"   

Ain't No Grave Johnny Cash

It isn't Easter yet so biblical tales of " being risen from the dead" might be a tad premature but for those penning my running obituary......hold the front page and shut the front door......still life in the auld dog yet!!

For the fifth time since 2018 I ran the Love Run half marathon it's become a big race on the calendar, I'd say in Philly but according to the pre race announcer 13,000 runners{ that may include the recently added 7k} 20 countries  and 37 states toed the line yesterday morning at 7.30am,I can see the appeal after a long Winter runners are eager to get out and race and have something to show for weeks and months of hard grind, Spring Marathons are just around the corner too so what better way to gauge your level of training than a half marathon?

It's been well documented in my blog that this race chewed me up and spat me out last year and began a domino effect that lasted the whole year, was this redemption? was this me looking to even the score? maybe a little of both.....or it could be race #2 of my season and the start of The Triple Crown {Love Run 1/2 Marathon, Hot Chocolate 15k, Broad Street Run} over the next five weeks either way I was "all in" maybe a little undertrained w/ only one 10 mile run to my credit four weeks ago but last year I had  four 12 milers,  four 14 milers and three 16 milers under my belt coming into the race and proceeded to "shit the bed" so taking a leaf out of my former coach's playbook" sometimes it's better to be a little underprepared than overcooked" I came in a little on the back foot, being gung ho last year believing a sub 1.30 time was there for the taking blew up in my face and I wasn't looking for a repeat of that thank you very much......

Up at Silly O Clock to be dressed and out the door by 6am and down to Eakins Oval by 6.35am,why so early for a 7.30am gun time? have you ever seen the lines for the Portajohns at these races....13,000 runners all need that last prerace dump the lines at 6.35am compared to 7am are night and day and trust me there's nothing worse waiting in line to shed those pre race nerves when the line isn't moving but the contents of your bowels are dancing a feckin' rumba in your lower stomach.....ergo why I get to my races and hour b4 start time.....

45 degrees and overcast pretty good race conditions, I remember one year, maybe 2019 when it was frigid as feck and the start got delayed by 15 minutes.....fuckin feet felt like two blocks of ice by the time the gun went off.....no such worries today as I took my place in the third corral aptly the Green Corral.....so I blended right in!!!!, the Lebanon flag was just behind me and the Irish Tricolour  albeit wrapped around it's flagpole was on the other side of the Ben Franklin Parkway sadly NO PALESTINE FLAG.........but I made sure to wear  my Palestine bracelet and give the Israel flag the finger b4 turning onto 16th St, I could be wrong but I thought I was asked if I wanted to put a message on my running bib when I submitted my entry and I chose RUN4GAZA.....it didn't make it to said running bib....now it could've been for Saturdays Hot Choc 15k,Broad Street Run or August's Philly 10k but I saw a lot of other runners w/ "Vanity Plate Running Bibs" so I tend to think I got fucked over.....fine you find my RUN4GAZA bib offensive.....I'll just wear my Paddystinian  t shirt after the race.....don't get mad, get even...........

8.40 for the opening mile, I was aiming for 8 min miles so I was a little off pace however the start of the opening mile is always crowded as the corral sorts its self out so I didn't feel the need to press the panic button and mile 2 yielded a  7.55 split so it was give or take where I wanted to be, while my target time was 1.45 off 8 min mile pace I was more focused on running a complete race both of my half marathons last year were stop/start, walk/run affairs and I didn't want a repeat of that, slow and steady it was, however w/ the cloud cover it was clear my Garmin aka Hal The Little Bollix was acting up each mile registered on the garmin b4 I reached the mile marker flag.....annoying as that is I'm plenty used to it w/ Hal and I continued to  check my overall time at each mile marker, I'm citing the actual time on Hal for my splits.....

8.18 at mile 3 and 8.04 at mile 4 as I made my way back up the Parkway, as I say a lot these days" this ain't my first Rodeo" { next year will be my Golden Jubilee of running 50 years} so I knew not to over project just take each mile on face value, add 8 mins to it for the next one and repeat, 8.14 at mile 5 and a slightly slower 8.50 for mile 6.....which has the long twisty uphill of Brewery  Hill b4 crossing the Schuylkill via Girard Ave bridge

I had elected to " run my own race" and not worry about the pacers, they do a fine job pacing runners but today was  about " running on feel" another gem from my former coach  so when I passed the 1.55 group  on West River Drive around mile 7 I knew I was a little below the 1.45 I had thought I could run.....that said last year I thought I was gonna crush a sub 1.30 and had to settle for a 1.39 so at this point a sub 1.50 might be doable, w/ last year in mind I got blindsided by the hill on Black Road after mile 10 so I was keeping something in reserve this year...plus I only had one 10 mile run under my belt for my long run so this was a case of playing the long game

Last year caught me off guard, due to a hip injury in 22 and a knee injury in 23 I hadn't ran the Love Run since 21 and back then the hill on Black Road wasn't part of the course so a bad day and an unexpected hill resulted in the wheels coming off, maybe running at a slower pace this year and being prepared for it meant that hill while still a bastard wasn't as bad as last year, it would result in my slowest split at 9.12 but a hill at mile 10 of a half marathon will do that to ya...... but unlike last year it didn't brake me

Now for shades of my 1/2 marathon debut in Leicester in 84 when I'd never gone beyond 10 miles b4 the final 3 miles were The Twilight Zone  that day and now some 42 years later here I was again.....back then I was 20 now I'm rockin up on 62.....there is an older wiser head on these shoulders.... sadly I have the knees of a 61 year old who's been doing this for 49 years......

I recovered from the Black Road hill  w/ a 8.33 split for mile 12 as I reached the foot of Brewery Hill and trusty Kelly Drive just over a mile to go last year trying to negotiate the slight uphill towards the Art Museum  was hard work and I remember some arse clown in front of me talking on his phone which boiled my piss but I didn't have it to get passed him, more insult to injury...... in my final race of last year I got beat by someone in my age group I routinely defeat 8/9 times out of 10 hey every dog has its day and I had no business being on the course that day but I wasn't going to "cop a plea" and undermine his victory by saying I hadn't ran a lick in three weeks I let him have his victory but today w/ just under 1/2 a mile to go his wheels were coming off and I took great pleasure passing him and digging a little deeper to get to the finishline b4 him off an 8.27 final mile

1.51.56 off 8.25 mile pace, by the numbers this is slow, it's my second slowest ever 1/2 marathon and 11 mins slower than last year but sometimes ye need to look beyond the xs and os....after a couple of bad races last year this one included today I went gun to tape w/out stopping....sure maybe small potatos in the general scheme of things but when your confidence, moral and self belief have gone in the crapper and were as low as whale shit to run a smart albeit slow race is a great way to rebuild that confidence, moral and self belief 1.51.56 equates to a 3.43.12 marathon, after a 4.36 marathon in Dublin last year I'd willingly take a 3.43.12 marathon....the good news is I have 34 more weeks to get quicker and faster, like I said reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.....don't send flowers, don't throw dirt on my grave, my last rodeo is a ways  away yet........

Catch Up?......More Of A HP Man Meself...

"Oh once you get to know me I'm a coyote in a field of wolves, oh I'm a red letter rebel but some become the devil when the moon is full"

I'm A Little Crazy-Morgan Wallen

 So on the eve of race #2  for the year I thought it prudent to catch up on the last couple of weeks,thankfully my lack of blogging was more a result of just being stretched a little thin of late both personally and professionally and nothing more

I have missed both of my projected long runs the last 2 weekends which I'm not thrilled over but the first one on March 16th was warranted there's not much that  I prioritize above said long run period muchless when a half marathon is looming but w/out going TMI let's just say on this occasion  it was justified, sadly in the last three weeks I have missed one or two of my lunchtime runs the upshot of which is I,m gonna fall shy of triple digit miles this month,probably looking at 80 mile this month, glass half empty 20 miles shy of the target, glass half full 4 miles more than February and hopefully starting Tuesday I can build towards triple digit mileage for April, in retrospect I feel I did too much too soon logging back to back 148 milers in Dec of 23 and Jan of last year b4 logging 154 miles in Feb.....before the arse fell out of my season, w/ my sights set firmly on the Philly Marathon on Nov 23rd it's clutch not to peak too soon like I feel I did a year ago

Tuesday March 11th  my final week of lunchtime 4 miles,I feel it's time to move up to 5 miles next week and in keeping w/ recent weeks an untimed  run to save something for the following days tempo run,it remains to be seen if I resume longer evening runs, the clocks have gone forward and it is lighter now, that said I kinda like the lunchtime run, in an ideal world in a few weeks {probably mid May post Broad St Run} I could be logging 40 mile weeks 4 x 5 milers Monday thro Thursday w/ a 20 mile long run on the weekends{sounds good in theory!!!} we'll have to see how hot it gets in the summer if I have to get up in the mornings to run b4 work

Wednesday March 12th Final 4 mile tempo run and a new seasons best,18 seconds off my previous best of 33.12.4,not exactly text book out in 15.44 {7.43-8.01} back in 17.09 {8.43-8.26} off 8.12 mile pace I knew I'd gone out hard and hoped I could hang on hang on, thankfully 7 weeks of conditioning meant I could and I could close the book on 4 mile tempo runs w/ a bang

Thursday March 13th, a nice easy run after lettin' the clutch out the day b4 little did I know it would be my final run of the week to round out the week at 12 miles and put me at 37 for the month,for the record my time was  a modest 37.31.7 off 9.22 mile pace w/ splits of :8.38-9.06-9.53-9.52 

22 4 milers since Jan 13th, a lot less huffin' & puffin' than when I began,to put that in perspective on  Jan 13th after a lengthy hiatus I went:38.35.4 off 9.39 mile pace off of splits of:8.41-9.39-10.33-9.42

Tuesday March 18th my debut at 5 milers and a modest 46.06.1 off 9.13 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.33-9.19-9.21-9.31-9.21,basically an extra half a mile along Kelly Drive beyond the end of Boathouse Row to just beyond the Girard Avenue bridge 

Wednesday March 19th an untimed run which tends not to leave much to blog about.....however it was 69 degrees when I finished just b4 3pm which meant being able to ditch the trusty half zip top, the other was the return of the flags along the Ben Franklin Parkway...... however I spotted one glaring omission.... where in the name of jaysus is the Palestine flag????

Heading eastbound on the Parkway the first flag after Eakins Oval is Kuwait, by the time you reach 22nd St we're into the P's......by the time you reach the R's there is no sign of  the Palestine flag......and trust me I've looked!!!!!

According to the City Of Philadelphia website " several flags have been taken down for repair".....I call bullshit on that, when the flags were taken down for the Eagles Superbowl in mid February and now put back up, all the flagpole/lamposts they are attached to have name plates in case there's a flag you don't recognize by sight.......I don't see a name plate for the Palestine flag?????

The Lebanon flag will be just b4 the starting line on Sunday w/ the Irish Tricolour on the opposite side of the Parkway and I'll pass it  between miles 4 & 5 but I'm fucked off there is no Palestine flag to salute.....I will however reserve my contempt  for that when I pass the Israel flag at the end of the Parkway b4 turning onto 16th St to get over to JFK Blvd,it's inside the opening mile so I'll have enough energy to be verbal about it ....or at least give it the middle finger.......

Sadly this was my final run of the week so only 10 miles in the bank to add to the 37 I already had

Tuesday March 25th a modest 44.31.8 off 8.53 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.28-9.01-9.08-9.13-8.40,technically a seasons best given my previous 5 miler last Tuesday was only 46.06.1 but knowing come Thursday I'd be going for a tempo run I figured I'd wait till then b4 lauding a new SB.....

Wednesday March 26h an untimed run in savage windy conditions, how savage was it? I fully expected Winnie The Pooh out there underlining it was indeed " a blustery day",a week ago it was 69 degrees and I ran sans half zip today  it was fackin' chilly out like, last Thursday was the end of Winter and now less than a week later I still need my half zip out there,I guess I won't be putting them away for a few more weeks

Thursday March 27th Officially a Seasons Best.....41.48.3 off 8.21 mile pace off of splits of:8.42-7.39-8.31-8.53-8.02

There will be faster times over the coming weeks and more even splits so while I'll acknowledge the Season's Best I won't get carried away w/ it period but there is a bigger prize on the horizon on Sunday at the Love Run half marathon,last year not only did this race chew me up and spit me out the other end  it also signaled the downward trajectory of my season so I feel I have a score to settle.....

An Irish Two Step.....One Step Forward....Two Steps Back......

 "This love's gettin' dangerous, feels like a loaded gun, my my its turning like a cloud of dust my heart always wants to run"

White Horse Chris Stapleton

Another up and down week for your truly, " up and down like a whores draws" as the auld fella used to say.......welcome to another week of Kevinrunningfree....

Monday March 3rd

Easy/Recovery 4 miler to kick off the week, 36.26.1 off 9.07 mile pace w/ splits of  8.32-9.27-9.30-8.55 nothing fancy but I was just looking to get the crap out of my legs after Sundays long run

I noticed the nations flags that hang from the lamp posts on the Ben Franklin Parkway are being rehung, they got taken down for the Eagles parade as I'm sure some of them would've gone home as souvenirs , my guess is come the Love Run on March 30th they'll all be flying, the starting line is  close to where the Irish Tricolour hangs which always gives me a boost, the pride I get from wearing my Ireland running uniform is second to none, as JFK famously said "I may not have been born in Ireland....but Ireland was born in me".......

Tuesday March 4th

An untimed 4 miler which I have to say felt good, nice to have a run that isn't dictated by speed, pace splits, just a runner and his thoughts, I have to say since I opted for the Parkway and Kelly Drive sometime in late fall this route has become my favourite lunchtime run cutting out Market St and JFK Blvd both of which had way too many red lights for my liking, it does mean less time along the Schuylkill River which can be a blessing and a curse, the Schuylkill River Trail is great to run along but if the wind is whipping off of it or on the rare occasions it breaches its banks it's not so much fun

The clocks are going forward this Sunday which frees up evening runs if I so choose, to be honest I'm happy to run at lunchtime, the week after next I might bump the run up to 5 miles it's much easier to get my miles in at lunch time than worry about coming home after work and getting my arse back out the door, granted I could get more miles in that way but looking at the big picture if I do 4 times 5 miles Monday thro Thursday that's 20 miles plus my long run on the weekend which could be 20 miles later in the year for a 40 mile week, that could work.......

Thursday March 6th

Ye can't fight City Hall or Mother Nature, Wednesdays run got rained off, don't get it twisted I've no issue running in the rain but yesterday was a doozie, at 2pm I ducked into an empty office to get changed and stretched b4 heading out, when I looked out the window to Chestnut St 21 floors below me everything looked a go no umbrellas etc, in the time it took to get out of my work clothes and into my running gear the rain was bouncing off the window and the wind was howling, stick a fork in it!

So now off the back of an untimed run and an unscheduled rest day I had a crack at a hard/tempo run ,I wasn't aiming for Feb 12ths Seasons Best time of 33.14.6 when I set off around 2.10pm.......

8.05 for the opening split, as the saying goes " can't put the Genie back in the bottle now" by the time I reached the Schuylkill River Trail/Kelly Drive I could feel the wind in my face, mile 2 was going to be a fight...8.38 split, hopefully after the turn at the end of Boathouse Row the wind would be at my back and I hadn't used up too much energy fighting the wind heading north

8.33 for mile 3 it was going to be close but this ain't my first Rodeo....nor my last.......7.55 for the final mile.....sure it was wind assisted but I'll take it.....

33.12.4 a new seasons best time by 2 seconds off 8.18 mile pace to compare w/ the previous sb my splits were:7.35-8.30-9.06-8.02 off 8.17 mile pace

At six weeks in to my training I feel I'm back to a level of strength speed and stamina where I can go out hard and hold on, however the old adage of not getting too high off your wins was about to  play out......

Sunday March 9th

You'd have thought off the back of last weeks 10 miler on top of the fact on the final day of the European Indoor Athletics C'ships Ireland won a Gold and 2 Bronze medals and Cork's 15 point annihilation of Clare in the Allianz League Hurling I'd be fair flying it.......

I don't know if the time change threw me off it was 2.30pm when I headed out 1.30pm in old money if said clocks hadn't gone forward so my normal time to go long on a Sunday I do know the wind was fair savage so I nixed any thoughts of going out and back along the Schuylkill and opted for Powelton Ave

8.37 for the opening mile b4 the turn on to Powelton Ave, I could feel the wind in my face and when mile 2 clocked in at 9.28  making the left onto 31st St at roughly 2.5 miles I knew "it wasn't going to be my day" I stopped once  on 31st b4 it becomes Mantua Ave after Spring Garden St and again on Mantua Ave and turned around to head back, this race was run a 9.42 mile for mile 3 b4 I called " time of death" at 27.07 off 9.16 mile pace.....

Was last Sunday a "false dawn??" is the monkey still on my back w/ double digit runs? I don't know I have 2 more weekends b4 the Love Run to try for a 12 miler and maybe 14 miler....I  DO NOT  want a repeat of last years Love Run debacle nor a rerun of PDR from September at a time I'm embracing my "Inner Cowboy" I would prefer to keep my Texas Two Steping  to the dance floor and not my running thank y'all very much, time to round up the doggies, piss on this camp fire and head off into the sunset and hope for happier trails next week........

Boldly Going Where I Haven't Gone For A While

 "Yeah, we all had our day in the sun when a horse wants to run, there ain't no sense in closing the gate you can have your space, cowboy"

Space Cowboy Kacey Musgraves

Not a bad week, rounded out February w/ 76 miles and  finally nailed a 10 mile run.......

Tuesday Feb 25th

Having sat out Monday for health concerns I discovered on Tuesday in my haste to get out the door at 7.10am that I'd forgotten to unhook my Garmin from the charger, having missed a run Monday I was loathe to miss another one today so I went old school and ran sans Garmin.......

I must say it was somewhat liberating not to be governed by the Garmin for once, not obsessing over time, pace, splits, etc  at week five of my training I know full well where the 2 mile turnaround at Boathouse Row on Kelly Dr is by now

Moving forward I may skip the Garmin once a week, I was thinking Monday is an Easy/Recovery run, Tuesday Untimed, Wednesday Tempo/Hard run, Thursday  Easy/Recovery run.......sounds good in theory but we all know theory and practice are often a horse of a different colour

Wednesday Feb 26th

Maybe it was the benefit of a rest day Monday and an untimed run yesterday but Wednesday yielded my second fastest time of the year 34.19.1 off 8.33 mile pace thanks to splits of: 8.37-8.41-8-54-8.06

I knew by the turn around in 17.18 I was on for something fast, mile 3 kinda got away from me but I finished strong and post run  realized it was another negative split out in 17.18 back in 17.00

At week 5 of my return to regular training I'm starting to see and feel the benefits of getting back out there 4,5 times a week, granted the mileage is still low but we're a month away from the clocks going forward and the option of longer evening runs although I may just stick to my Monday-Thursday lunchtime routine and bump it up to 5 miles b4 going long on the weekend, at some point in May post Broad St Run I could be up to 20 miles for my long run plus 4x5 miles during the week, I could live on 40mpw....again it's theory and practice but in theory it sounds good

Thursday Feb 27th

Final run of the month, an easy/recovery 4 miles in 35.05.3 off 8.46 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.39-8.48-9.04-8.35

Nothing much to write home about, other than it bringing my monthly total to  76 miles, my best return since April of last year when I logged 81 miles, again little by little I feel it's getting there and I'm turning the corner, still a ways to go but as long as I see progress I'm not overly concerned how little it's by.....that said I'm hoping for a return to triple digit mileage in March.....

Sunday Mar 2nd

Third time's a charm! finally nailed a 10 miler however my trials and tribulations w/ double digit runs go back to June/July of last year, in the build up to PDR in mid September I couldn't buy a 10 mile run, in fact my last 10 miler was on July 27th when I was aiming for 12 miles, I clocked a 1.28.56 off  8.54 mile pace, I had to walk/run the final 5 miles of PDR and while I did get through the opening 10 miles of the Dublin marathon I then had to walk run the final 16 miles......

Each failure meant the proverbial " Monkey on my back" was starting to feel like King Kong period but w/ only 4 scheduled long runs in the build up to the Love Run 1/2 marathon in 5 weeks time the pressure was starting to build again....

Out the door by 1.30pm it was at least sunny....34 degrees but sunny, I opted  not  to run along the Schuylkill when it's that cold I don't need the wind whipping off the Schuylkill River for miles, 3-4-5-6-7-8 so I opted for Powelton Ave to Mantua Ave,34th Street to Lansdowne Dr, Fairmount Park to Belmont Ave and back

I wasn't overly concerned about time, speed, pace however  on my 7 and 8 mile "long runs" I was averaging 9.35 mile pace so realistically I was looking at a 1.35 finish......finish being the operative word here, I needed to shed this millstone from around my neck that I couldn't log double digit runs

8.33 for the opening mile, it was a tad chilly to be hanging about but I needed to look at the big picture and pace myself accordingly....so when mile 2 came up at 8.07 I was a little concerned, however things settled down w/ almost identical splits at 3 and 4 miles,8.53-8.54

I knew mile 5 would be slower, the winding uphill on Lansdowne Dr to Fairmount Park is tough so no alarm bells when I clocked 9.46 43.32 at the half, a few rough moments along the way but unlike last week at the turn when I pretty much knew I wasn't going to make it all the way home I dug deep both mentally and physically, I needed this and I was going to dig deep to get it

8.59 for mile 6 the downhill Lansdowne Dr is always easier, 9.28 for mile 7 as I turned on to Mantua Ave, I now had to focus on 1 mile at a time, mile 8 was as far as I've ran not just this year but for a while take away PDR, Dublin Marathon and Rocky Run my last run over 8 miles was 9 miler on Oct 13th when I clocked 1.31.38 off 10.11 mile pace.....

9.44 for mile 8 down Powelton Ave, w/ 2 miles to go it would be a crime not to finish now so no matter how slow it got, how tough it got, how deep I had to dig I was gonna see it through to the bitter end if need be

9.26 at mile 9...I could taste it and while the final mile did get away from me a little 10.04 I finally had a 10 mile run under my belt

1.31.55 off 9.12 mile pace never felt as good as this did, one Swallow does not a Summer's make, but hopefully King Kong is off my back now and I can build on this, a 12 miler next weekend would be nice

My yurt and dirt of the week go to the same thing, finally in it's 12th year the Philly 10k is offering a finishers medal, it's the only race on my schedule that doesn't but given it ends a long drought of no races after BSR in early May to the end of August and sets me up for PDR in mid/late September and sets me up for the Fall Road Race season I run it anyway.....my dirt is they charged extra to runners who want the medal......WTF!!!!??? aside from the balls faced nerve to say" we're offering finishers medals....but ye have to pay extra to enter if ye want one" how  how in the name of Jaysus are you going to determine  who paid extra and who doesn't want the medal at the finish???....tbc....