"This is a rebel song this is a a war I'll tell you a story bout ten thousand people at heaven's door It never occurred to you how the west was won, keep stealing and then it's yours they won't ask questions if you allow none The bullets never lie they pierce a hole inside the enemy's own pride they shouted " self defence" but the gun's still smoking we're on our own again"
A Rebel Song-Dea Matrona
I forget how long I've been writing the blog,nineteen years I think next month,I have always tried to be honest even when things didn't go to plan.....that will be one of those days..........
Thursday September 17th After a couple of misfires earlier in the week I finally was able to answer the call of the alarm.......by virtue of waking up 17 minutes b4 it went off at 5.17am, unlike previous days when I woke up around 4 am and fell back asleep this time when I awoke and saw 5.17am I thought feck it I'm awake now shur,might as well get up get dressed and stretched and be out the door so.....5.47am and pitch black as I headed down Baltimore Ave towards Upenn and Chop hospitals on Spruce St and the South St bridge.Obviously I couldn't see the ground beneath my feet at that hour so it behoved me to exercise a little caution so my overall time,pace and splits were neither here nor there,staying up right and in one piece was the first priority,the opening mile mark came up a little later than usual down Baltimore Ave which came as no surprise I ended up going beyond my usual turnaround at Locust Point to register 2.5 miles in 21.55.While not fully daylight yet it was getting lighter as the run continued,I remember crossing the South St bridge at roughly mile 3 and it was still not light, but somewhere in the next two miles as I made my way back up Baltimore Ave it became daylight.44.12.4 off 8.49 mile pace 70 degrees but 84% humidity{so much for it cooling off in September!!!} for the record I was home by 6.36am......Sunrise was officially 6.43am.......
Sunday September 20th......if it's the third Sunday in September it must be PDR, since my debut in 1989 I think I've run this race 20 times making it the most run race in my career,I've always said how much I love this race but three years on the spin now it's had issues making it a love/hate affair, at the risk of looking too far down the road there are two editions coming up in 28 and 31 where I plan to be running 1/2 marathons in Ireland on the same day,initially I was a little miffed to have to pass on PDR,after todays shit show I won't bat an eyelid running Belfast in 28 and Phoenix Park Dublin in 31 let me tell ye!....,,,,,,,..I knew coming in to today I didn't have the full compliment of mileage I wanted,since late July it's been a little hit and miss between my achilles,and Sunrise getting later and later,at least last year I came in w/ a bunch of lunchtime 5 milers under my belt to give me 20 miles during the week and whatever I got on the weekend, race/long run.......ye can bitch all ye like in running and in life...still have to play the hand ye are dealt....even if it's a shit hand!First issue at this time of year ye'll be arsehole lucky to get 6pm local news since the networks all want to show college Football on a Saturday .....and b4 anyone says it....FUCK NO I'm not staying up till 11pm for the late local news and weather when I have to be up at 5.30am the next morning so I was unaware of the rain in the forecast, strike 2 w/ said rain the fact that the always reliable Septa mass transit system had elected to take the trolleys out of commission for the weekend and run buses to 40th and Market St instead came into play, schlepping down 50th St to Market St b4 hitting 52nd & Market for the El didn't exactly "pump my nads" and now it was raining.....how bad could it be to take the bus to 40th & Market and jump on he El to 30th St??????......I'll tell me how feckin' bad it could be instead of getting to Eakins Oval by 6.35am for a 7.30am gun time I now get there at 6.55am......predictably the lines for the portajohn are ridiculous ......and to add further insult to injury the line for gear check is longer than the lines at a Ticketmaster site asking for a full refund on an Ed "I Don't Take Sides"Sheeran show.......fuckin' ginger coward,better not be touting that auld "I'm Irish" bollox after this week.....pussy!!!!! Based on my predicted finish which I think was 1.40/1.45 I was assigned corral 2 at he start......that went for a burton, I was still waiting to check my bag when the Star Spangled Banner was being sung.......I had no idea what corral I was in but the first hint it was slow was when the siren went off nobody seemed terribly concerned w/ getting after it and I was soon well clear of them and already passing stragglers from the previous corral rounding Logan Circle........at mile 4 I passed the 2.00 pace group........THAT'S how far back I was.........fuckin' flashbacks of the 2017 Philadelphia Marathon shitshow/debarcle .I realized all the shite that had lead up to this point could not be undone to quote an auld Usain Bolt quote that's on my front door when I leave" worrying gets you nowhere, if you show up worrying about how you're going to perform you've already lost. Train hard ,turn up,run your best and it will take care of its self".....sound out like.....when ye only have to run 100 or 200 meters,,,,,bit different for a half marathon!At this point my pre race aim of 8 min mile pace and a potential 1.42 finish was a pipe dream, while the on/off rain hardly bothered me and the 67 degrees, the 82% humidity was becoming a factor, my mile splits were up and down like a hoors knickers:7.20-8.06-8.15-8.34-8.22=8.49-8.27-8.39-9.05-9,01-8.45-9.08-9.10-.57 ye know ye are having a bad day at the office when the mile markers seem to take longer to show up, yep I"ve had races when the mile markers pop up sooner than ye's expect and I've had days when ye're praying the next mile marker will show up, today sadly was the latter, I had hoped when I passed mile 11 at Columbia bridge I could " empty the tanks"over the closing 2 miles.....the fact my last two splits of 9.08 and 9.10 were my slowest of the day underlined I had almost zero knee lift or leg turnover left and at the risk of braking my hand patting myself on the back{ remember the difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the arse is about 15 inches!!!!} at least the guts to grind it out and finish was still burning/ragin' inside me.1.52.38 off 8.35 mile pace.....my second slowest half marathon in two years, medal #11 for the years and #280 for the career felt like scant consolation after crossing the finish line
I have a week off from work beginning Wednesday, as well as some much needed time off from work I'm hoping to get a weeks worth of training under my belt to round out September on a semi positive note, I have 11 more races between Saturday and December 26th to try and put myself at #292 by years end,Philly 1/2 marathon is nine weeks away hopefully today will be a distant memory on Saturday November 21st when I tackle 13.1 again for the 47th time in 42 years......
No comments:
Post a Comment