The Bridge-Cactus World News
Another week banajaxed by work{ohh and we are so getting into that!} the clocks going back and the start of the stretch run for the season finale.........
So stop me if ye feel ye've heard this one before but work totally bolloxed my runs this week as Monday,Tuesday and Thursday felt as if Bill Murray was just around the corner filming "Groundhog Day" and while I fully appreciate work much like the universe doesn't give a fiddlers fuck about my training schedule the last two weeks now have cost me seven of the eight scheduled runs I had planned...I'm at a point where I need to reconsider the whole running home plan as it just isn't working, first two weeks of October not a bother I logged five of my seven runs......then the arse fell out of it w/ only one 5 miler to show for two weeks, another month of only 40 miles logged, after the highs of triple digit mileage in July w/ 113 miles it's gone:51,40,40 in August, September October,as of October 31st I have 607 miles logged for the year and the 2023 & 2025 tally of 769 is beginning to get away from me not to mention I'm now very much into the "meat & potatoes" section of my season, including todays race there are eight races in ten weeks this is when I need to be logging semi decent weekly runs not fuckin relying on my races to pad my mileage......At least I now have the next week and a half off from work either side of a trip to London hopefully I can log a few 7 mile runs mid morning/ lunchtime either side of that, w/ two half marathons on the schedule between the 5k & 10 miler @ The Rocky Run and then the actual Philly 1/2 marathon and then the penultimate Camden riverfront 10k to round out the month there's potential for a decent return on my November mileage.....who knows throw in half a dozen post work 5 milers between Nov 12th and the 30th and I could be looking at another triple digit mileage month heading into the final three races of the season on December 6th,12th and 26th......in order for that to happen either work has to settle down OR I run to work in the mornings going in the opposite direction of the run home but on the same route......we'll revisit all that come November 12th prior to the Rocky Run.
Wednesday October 29th In what would prove to be my only training run of the week I guess ye could say it was a pre Halloween treat.......thanks in no small part to somebody putting fuckin 50p in some bollox at work on Thursday who sent four print/Fed Ex/Mail requests between 4.18pm and 4.28pm that bolloxed any plans to add a second 5 miler and rounding out October w/ 45 miles........but I digress.........Irregardless of the fact this would prove to be my final run home in the daylight b4 the auld clocks went back here last nite it was a joy to get one last run in during daylight and coupled w/ the fact I shaved 35 seconds off of my previous time on October 15th by going 43.20.4 off 8.40 mile pace over 43.55.5 off 8.47 mile pace I'll take the moral victory.I really enjoyed these runs home.......I just wish there could've been more of them this month between work and now the sunset issue it remains to be seen what lies in store for the wee Fenian bastard come November 12th, it's either get up a bit earlier and be out the door by 7.10 at the latest to be at work by 8am OR keep rolling the dice and hoping not to keep crapping out after work, either way I need to get my miles in.
Sunday November 1st For the second time in four races Septa managed to fuck me over again, for those of ye outside of Philly Septa is an acronym for:South East Pennsylvania Transit Authority........having had to endure these hoors now for just over 39 years and countless strikes, fare increases, brake downs, or plan just not showing the fuck up when they're supposed to I call them Septic.....South East Pennsylvania Transit Is Crap!!!!!! So according to their schedule{not worth the shaggin' paper it's printed on....trust me!!!!!} there was a trolley at 6.39am which would get me to Center City by 7am and just about enough time to get the Patco high speed line over the Ben Franklin bridge at 7.05am and ample time to stretch, line up for the portajohn and then check my bag.......read that Market St 5 miler/Run For The Blue an actual fuckin bag check........ b4 the 8.30am start......up by 6.05am gear already laid out in the bathroom{learnt the hard way many years ago about not having my race gear ready and then sleeping thro the alarm and doing my best headless chicken impression trying to get myself out the door already behind feckin' schedule!!!!} some Barrys Breakfast Tae in the auld travel mug and out the door by 6.30am to walk 2 minutes to the trolley stop......fuckin thing never showed up and when I clocked yer wan driving the trolley going west I got that sick sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach he would be the one driving the fuckin yoke going east at 7.09am.......shur as shite that was the case.....tis one thing if and when the trolley shows up late but to cancel the fucker altogether sucks,I'm shur there were folks trying to get to work at that hour who now have to convince their boss it wasn't their fault they were late it was good auld reliable useless fuckin Septic!!!!! Close to 7.30am when it got to 15th St and yours truly hauling arse down 15th Street to the corner of 15th & Walnut St thinking the Patco train was at 7.35am......turned out it was 7.45am......again like Septic running on a Sunday schedule of every half an hour miss that one it's 8.15am when the next one rocks up and its a 15 min ride to City Hall in Camden and the race went off at 8.30am.......THIS is why I get up at Silly O Clock for each race so I can avoid this auld shite.........
Got to City Hall in Camden by 8am, 10 min walk down to the finishline at the track on the Rutgers Camden campus, checked my bag{thank you UPS!!!} and then got my all important pre race stretches in.....one modicum of benefit being over an hour late.....lines for the portajohn near to non existent.....cos everyone is now on the fuckin bridge waiting for the gun to go off at 8.30am........but I digress......again.Onto the bridge by 8.20am......I don't like cutting it that fine period but given the opening mile of most races is a cluster fuck to begin w/ on top of the fact this is uphill over the Ben Franklin bridge I wanted to get as clear of a start as I could and limit the weaving in and the fuck out of the walkers, talkers, gawkers and pre requsit selfie takers........don't get it twisted tis great ye show up and run and help the Larc School for children w/ disabilities but ye need to be further back at the start and not clogging up the course for those of who actual care about our time and how long it takes to get from start to finish..I'm not shur how high we are above the Delaware River we actually are when the bridge crests downhill into Philly and for the last several years of racing here we've been blessed w/ decent conditions but they never post a clock at miles 1,2 or 3 on the bridge for fear of them blowing over......in a day and age most runner have a Garmin maybe the clock isn't needed till miles 4,5 and 6.....Between the fact mile 1 is a cluster fuck and uphill the aim as ever was not to go off half cocked, the pre race aim was 8 min mile pace and finish under 50mins......opening mile was 8.31 but I wasn't worried mile 2 is downhill into Philly b4 a hairpin turn and back up hill and back to Camden 7.41 for mile 2 and a wry smile at the yokes who went balls to the wall in the opening 2 miles and are now walking........7.57 for mile 3 and a free wheel downhill into Camden at this point my Philly 10k time of 49.58.3 and Freedom Run 10k of 51.47.2 were going to fall....and lest we forget the 2 10ks I've ran up and back along the riverfront in July and October are pretty much the 5th mile of the course so I had a leg up on anyone not familiar w/ the course.7.52 at mile 4 mile 4 to 5 always feels like the longest as it's a straight run down 3rd St towards Battleship New Jersey then onto the riverfront back towards the Ben Franklin bridge and the finish, bummed my pace dipped to 8.14 but w/ a mile to go it was time for the time honoured "if ye have anything left to give this is the time to give it", no point getting done and thinking "I had more to give" exiting the riverfront towards the finish on the track I didn't wait till I reached the track to launch my kick and picked off the one runner I'd eyed up inside the final mile.
49.51.0 off 7.59 mile pace,both pre race aims achieved not to mention the oh so small matter of medal # 14 for the season and more importantly #283 for the career, 227th in a field of 2017 and 7th of 59 in the 60-64 age group......no point "throwing the toys out of the pram"{I leave that to the Gavin Robinson's and the DUP of this world!!!!!} I have been unable to put in the requited miles in training to compete for a top 3 finish much less zero tempo/speed work of late which for a race like this is needed to make the podium shur eyes on the prize #300 in Cork in eight months time but a wee bit faster in my races between now and then wouldn't hurt now would it?
So, 6 miles to kick off the month and a week off work, maybe I can squeeze out a quartet of 7 milers out and back along the trusty Schuylkill River Trail b4 heading to London and having something to blog next Tuesday when I get back and start building towards Novembers tally triple digits would be very welcome not to mention putting me in the region on 707 miles come December 1st.....tantalizing close to the 769 target.......channeling my inner Al Pacino from "Scent Of A Woman" I'm just getting warmed up!!!
It would be remiss of me not to say a few words about the sudden and tragic passing of Irish athlete Ciara Mageean today, 15 months ago she got the awful news she had stage 4 bowel cancer and sadly w/ that diagnosis the clock began to count down for her,34 is no age to die and it really is cruel that a women who devoted her life to athletics should be taken from us w/ cancer, we can put rockets in space but we can't cure this fuckin' disease???.If ye are of a mind to please check out her wonderful interview w/ Thomas Niblock & Oisin Mcconville on GAA Social, it was done late July after the All Ireland Hurling Final where she was a guess on BBC's coverage of the final,I think I'm right in saying she is the only non GAA player ever to be interviewed on the pod but she did play Camogie for Portaferry in her native County Down b4 focusing on track, her comment about being boxed in by the two English runners ahead of her coming off the final turn in the 2024 European 1,500m C'ships "I didn't play Camogie to be boxed in and miss out on a Gold medal" is a fitting epitaph to a runner who represented Ireland proudly in her brilliant but sadly all too short career, God speed Ciara, ye will be missed.....
