Seven Miles in the Park

Sunday, June 2, 2013:

Seven Miles in the Park.  We're three weeks away from the next marathon, Grandma's, and I should have done a long run today.  I have cold right now, though, and ran a marathon a week ago, so I just did 7 miles on the grass trails in the park.  Call it a recovery run I guess.  The grass is growing fast, six to eight inches high now, trying to stay ahead of the dandelions.   Running takes just a little more energy than it did a couple of weeks ago.  Two exchanges with other people:

• A moron let his unleashed dog take a run directly at me as I approached.  The dog collided with me but turned out to be friendly, though of course I didn't know that until the last second.  The moron and I exchanged words about controlling the dog.  I don't usually like conflict, but I was happy to stop this time and face him down.  Almost fun.  I doubt he learned anything though - he was a lot angrier than I was, for some reason.  I sometimes carry a knife when I run, for protection against dogs, but didn't have it along this time.  Good thing - that dog might have been hurt badly.

• A young woman, running toward me on the trail, asked me "How wet is the trail ahead?".  I pointed to my almost-clean shoes and said "No problem, you can get through."  She grinned, "Yay!  Sounds great!" and off she went. No doubt she flew through those marshy spots at twice my pace.

All organic

Whining: The right knee with PFS actually did hurt a bit, going down one hill especially.  I walked for a minute or two and the hill was in the past, along with the knee pain.  I should probably start up the PFS therapy exercises again though.

I lost track of the time toward the end, but at about five miles the pace was 10:40.  Good enough for tall grass.   What a wonderful, energy-giving run in perfect weather.

Friday, May 30:

This was the second run after the Med City Marathon.  2.51 miles on the park's paved trails, time 25:50, pace 10:18.  No problems.

Wednesday, May 28:

This was the first recovery run after the Med City Marathon last Sunday.  2.51 miles in about 27 minutes on the paved trails in the park.  No problems.