Beautiful 17 Miles

Seventeen miles outdoors in 2:28:33, pace 8:44 overall. First six in 53:40 (8:57), second six in 52:00 (8:40), last five in 42:53 (8:35). What a beautiful day to run! Partly cloudy, low 40's, just a light breeze. Dress: shorts and two T-shirts, a short-sleeved one and a long-sleeved one (Grandma’s training shirt) with a nice mock turtle collar. Also gloves, ear protection, and a visor. Brooks Burn shoes, as always.

ATTENTION RACE DIRECTORS: Long-sleeve shirts are WAY better if they have turtle-style necks to keep the cold off the top of the chest. And they look better too; it’s the difference between a T-shirt and an actual real shirt that might even be worn to functions other than races.

This run started slowly and got a little easier as the miles clicked by. On the training schedule it was listed as an “easy” run, because it’s the first 15+ miler since the Austin Marathon and because the Human Race 8k is this coming Sunday. It didn’t feel all that easy though; perhaps I pushed a little too hard. But now it’s done and I feel great.

Slight warnings from the knees, especially the right one, doubtless due to the cold; my knees don’t especially like cold running even if the rest of me loves it. Knees are fine now. The left Lisfranc ligament yelped a few times, but settled down. Because of that arthritic ligament it’s easier to make right turns than left, so I ran the Legion loop mostly in the clockwise direction.

Medical test results tomorrow. Life is good, hope abounds.