100th Post

Wow, that went pretty quickly. Here I am at my one hundredth post on this blog; I'm impressed with myself that I've stuck with this that long. Of course at one point I could have said the same thing about running.

The Philly marathon was today, which quashed any ideas I might have had about going down to the drives. The forecast for the morning wasn't great - good chance of rain, windy, and on the cold side. I had thoughts about the hamster wheel. It's funny, as much as I complain when I have to run on that thing, I still look to it for comfort when faced with possibly not so nice weather conditions. I knew I'd never make it for the nine or so miles I was hoping to do today on the treadmill, but I entertained ideas of running the 3 miles out and back to the gym to run three or so more in the relative comfort of the treddy. This was ridiculous, I decided. How could I say no to Tinicum in the fall? The answer, of course, is that I couldn't.

I've always been envious of those who can hash through lots of things in their minds while they run. Usually, for me, I don't do too much serious thinking during my runs. Today, I tried to make myself think. Towards the beginning of my run, I was thinking about all the things I have to do for work, studying, the upcoming holidays, etc. I didn't like that train of thought, so I let it go.

One thought that kept coming up for me was the idea of being alone. I've been kicking about the idea of being alone in a number of different ways lately. Of course, most immediately, I thought of how I was running alone and how that's been a fact of my running in the last few months. Amy has been out of commission, running wise. I miss her. I miss the camaraderie, the 'deep thoughts' we would come up with during our runs together. I miss having someone beside me to push me when I needed pushing and to suffer along side of me during those miles that never seem to end. And, of course, its harder to get myself out the door on a morning like this morning if there is no one waiting on me.

On the other side of the coin, there is something nice about being alone. I alone set the pace. If I want to go faster, I go faster.... if I want to slow down, I can do that as well. Running alone is also highly consistent with my sometimes all too existentialist way of looking at life. This is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not - depending on the day and how far I take it. Today, I felt a lot of ambivalence about my solitary state. Neither unhappy, nor content.

All of those ruminations aside.... the run itself felt pretty good. I was facing a stiff headwind for about 70% of the time I was out there. Fortunately, the rain held off to a just a sprinkle here and there - nothing too bothersome. Tinicum was quiet - saw a handful of humans, some in groups, others alone like me. I was the only runner - something that gave me pride, but also had me feeling lonesome.

The hip remains feeling pretty good. I'm cautiously optimistic. There was a bit of awareness of the pain initially, but not nearly as bad as it's been and, as is usual, it faded after the first two miles. This makes me happy.

9.4 in 79min 2sec.