"People have written you off many times but you are a great survivor, and though you have suffered some terrible crimes I know it's just made you stronger, you're standing on your own two feet got a morbid past but you've got it beat got the key for living sitting in your hand now use it while you can, you've got to hold on to how you feel today this is the last train from the wasteland"
Last Train From The Wasteland-Stiff Little Fingers
I should've known a week that began w/ a race on Monday was always going to be a different week than the usual run of the mill weeks.....ah shur feck it isn't variety meant to be the spice of life????
Monday Sept 1st
Fresh off my longest week of the year and my longest run of the year and a return to triple digits what do I do for encore?......I'll kick off the week w/ a 10K race........
The Labour Day 5K/10K on Kelly Drive was a brand new race on my calendar but since they said the magic word.......not Abracadabra but Medals I was in Flynn......any chance to add another to the collection and get one closer to the target of 300 was worth getting up at silly o clock{5.30am} on a holiday for
Being it was a brand new race and on a holiday weekend I wasn't sure what kinda turnout to expect for a 7.30am gun time, 1432 in the 5K, 286 in the 10K decent enough, conditions were reasonable 60 degrees w/ 75% humidity
I knew when I saw 7.16 for the opening split I'd gone out too quick and as my former coach always said" ye can't put the Genie back in the bottle/ye can't put the Toothpaste back in the tube" in my defense lumping the 5K and 10K in together probably resulted in such a brisk opening mile,the previous Sunday in the Philly 10K my opening split was 7.41....... I was going to have to deal w/ it now
7.52 at mile 2 the field was well strung out and I was kinda in "no mans land" I didn't really have anyone around me to work off of.....then again it's like that on training runs so it's not a big deal
8.09 at mile 3, I began counting the runners ahead of me who'd made the turnaround,I believe I was 45th I may've miscounted and it's always possible there were people running "bandit" it's not an exact science but 5 other runners overtook me on the inbound 5K, two of whom I was able to reel back in, the first was funny he worked so hard to overtake me only to stop and take on water and walk at one of the water stops that I went back in front of him almost right away.....
8.07 at mile 4 I was feeling ok the brisk opening mile hadn't done me in too badly,this wasn't " my first Rodeo" and trust me I've died far worse deaths over longer distances over the years{ the 2017 Oddyssey Half Marathon springs to mind, second race back after a long hiatus from road races went out way too hard early on and died a horrible death over the closing 10/11 miles, was just happy to finish that day in a then all time slowest time for the half marathon!!!!!}
8.06 at mile 5 now for the weaving in and out of the stragglers in the 5k, don't get it twisted I admire anyone who'll get off the couch to tun/walk a 5k period much less at 7.30am on a holiday but please have some consideration for people who are actually running period much less twice as far as ye and don't walk 4-5 abreast on the course and force me and other runners to swing wide to pass ye.....it's a particular bug bear of mine, granted it only happens in a handful of races when multiple distances get ran together and does tend to boil my piss......rant over!
8.08 for mile 6 and more or less job done, so I did say I managed to reel in two of the five runners who passed me after the turnaround, the second one was just b4 the mile 6 marker, I could see him but wasn't sure I was going to be able to reel him in{this is where the 7.16 opening split comes back to haunt ya!} any ways I start to reel him in and see him talking on his phone..........this truly boils my piss to 212 f dude you're running a race get the fuck off the phone.....I refuse to lose to someone talking on their phone in a race......if ye recall last March when I had a "bad day at the office" in the Love Run I knew my Goose was cooked going up the hill from Lloyd Hall towards the finish in front of the Art Museum and a guy ahead of me was yacking away on his phone and I just didn't have it to bury him.....NOT TODAY!......#canyouhearmenow?
1.28 for the final .2 of a mile to cross the line in 49.07.0 off 7.53 mile pace, 36 seconds slower than last Sundays time at the Philly 10K......however in the Philly 10K I had to settle for 10th in the 60-69 age group today I was a comfortable winner by 5.23 and 44th overall
Not a bad morning's work if I say so myself to begin w/ but medal #6 for the season and #262 for the career put some extra gloss on it, there's potential for 8 more medals between now and the season finale on December 7th, finishing the year w/ 14 medals for the season but more importantly 270 for the career is solid motivation for the upcoming 12 weeks
The rest of my week probably isn't worth blogging to be honest I managed back to back easy 5 milers on Tuesday and Wednesday b4 another rare run on a Friday where I didn't observe the Pagan Sabbath, this was a result of late night on Wednesday seeing Stiff Little Fingers at Underground Arts,I'll willingly lose sleep for a good concert and while I had every intention to not only run on Thursday but also bookend the week w/ a pair of 6 milers either side of a pair of 5 milers as the auld expression goes " the road to heaven is paved w/ good intentions"...... the time honoured Irish expression of Notions springs to mind also....
I reluctantly passed on the weekend long run, Saturday it was muggy as feck and I didn't fancy tussling w/ my nemesis the humidity the hope was it wouldn't be as bad Sunday....76% humidity at 1pm and a less then settled stomach decided my fate, a 4 day/21 mile week sans long run it is, again another nugget of wisdom from my former coach" listen to what your body is telling you" no point going out there half cocked on a long run, sure I could've gone shorter but said feck it, keep the powder dry, ok it's one less potential long run in the build up to the Philly Marathon on November 23rd but a little self preservation today hopefully yields a solid week next week,not sure about the auld" w/ age comes wisdom" line but once again it's probably prudent to give myself a slightly easier week so I can ramp it up and go at it hard again next week.
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