Rush Hour

It's pretty hard for me to get up on Wednesday mornings. My salsa class doesn't end until 10:30pm, which means I don't get settled into the pumpkin patch (my bed) until after 11pm... way past my bedtime on a school night. When the alarm went off this morning, I didn't want to get up. I had slept with the windows open and that crisp morning air and the chirp of the birds made me want to stay in my warm bed and continue sleeping. "This is perfect sleeping weather", I thought as I rolled over and tasted the pillow with my grin. However, I was also thinking, "This is perfect running weather", so after not too much to do, I got out of bed and laced up.

This being my taper week, I knew it would be a fairly quick jaunt. I wanted to go out to Tinicum, however, and see what was doing there. I haven't run there many early(ish) mornings, but from what Steve says, its a hoppin' place with all the wildlife scurrying about looking for breakfast. Of course, it's a good mile plus from my doorstep before I really get to the 'good' part of Tinicum and given that I was only planning to do a total of about 4 miles today, which it worked out to be (Ha! That was my first link... I am getting pretty fancy here), I knew I wouldn't get to much of the good stuff - and I wouldn't be running the first loop... I'd be doing an out and back instead.

Running along the roadway/highway to the Tinicum entrance is always somewhat interesting. One can take note of the new road kill along with how Mr. Dead Possum is doing in his decomposition process. It's amazing that he can still stink so badly even though his corporeal being is almost but a memory. Oh yeah, and I got two honks too.

So, to make it a little interesting, I picked a notable stick early on in the trail and looked at my watch - the idea being that I'd run for fifteen minutes and then turn around and try to make it back to said stick in under fifteen minutes. Overall, my legs felt a little stiff today. I know this is because I had too much sugar yesterday and not enough water. That might sound crazy, but I know after running for this many years, that if I eat badly the day before (and when I say badly, I mean, someone brought in 3/4 of a large cake left over from his son's birthday party. I can resist everything but temptation, especially when it comes in the form of a sheet cake.) So the legs were tight, but not too bad - I've had worse (after a night with lots of M&Ms). At the turn around, I picked it up and tried to concentrate a little on getting my legs to turn over more quickly. Well, I made it back to the stick in 14:05, so I was pretty darn happy. Of course, it's not an exact science, but I know that I came back faster than I went out, and really, that was the goal.

Since I didn't get too far into Tinicum, the wildlife wasn't too abundant. About a quarter mile before my turn around, I encountered two none-shall-pass Canada geese... I was worried that we'd rumble, but I managed to get by with little more than some honking and dirty looks (on their part, not mine, I swear). I also saw four deer, springing away from me - big white tails held aloft... as I was running along the roadway just prior to the entrance for Tinicum.

Friday, I'll do another short run... and then Sunday is Allentown. I'm excited for the race, but not really feeling too great about my running. The ole' stress fracture is complaining pretty loudly in the past week plus. Just gimme another three weeks, leg, that's all I ask, then I'll slow down and (hopefully) get thee to a doctor.