duck, duck…goose!
i brought gear and ran at lunch today. temps were in the mid-thirties and the wind was up from the south. i headed on my "normal" route through the marina, which was rather uneventful. i was a bit overdressed for the temps and ended up taking my gloves off, which helped. on the way back, i was running along the lake when across a field to my right a group of geese had assembled. as i continued to run, pairs of geese began taking off in flight. i ended up pausing and letting a flight of geese fly past me just a bit above eye level. honestly, i’m not sure if i wanted to avoid a collision or the potential of being "dropped upon." regardless, i mustered five miles and hit the shower.
a windy way to start the day
i bundled up and headed out with temps in the mid-30’s and a gusty wind whipping the fallen leaves around the neighborhood. my route took me up university avenue past UW-W, which includes a few significant hills to climb. i made the turn for home at 3.5 miles with a little more than 30 minutes ticked off the stopwatch. rolling home, i had the benefit of a tailwind and a net elevation drop that got me home in a little more than 28 minutes.
so far this month i’ve mustered 30 miles, which puts me roughly on pace to get 2000 miles for the year. i’ll need to start doing a long run on the weekend again, which will make it much easier to tally the miles rather than the 5-7 mile efforts that i end up with during the week.
sunday afternoon constitutional
after an afternoon of watching football, i pried myself from the indentation on my couch and headed out the door. i opted for a short 5 mile loop so i could get home and eat dinner. one noticeable difference between running at 5AM and running in the late afternoon is the amount of automotive traffic out and about. for the most part, i get along fine. however, there are those few drivers that are very inconsiderate of other folks that i could do without. regardless, i rolled through the route a few ticks north of forty minutes and hit the shower.
olympic marathon trials
i rolled out of bed this morning to catch the US men’s olympic marathon trials being streamed over the internet. the race was held in NYC in Central Park. last fall i had three mornings in a row that i got to run there and was amazed at how hilly it was. running 26.2 on that terrain would be awful challenging.
the video stream had some technical issues and i was about to give up and go for a run when it finally began working. i was able to watch from about 45 minutes into the race. shortly after the stream started working, my two oldest daughters came into the room to see what i was up to. alia took the most interest and sat on my lap for awhile to watch. honestly, it was a great race to watch as Hall broke away from everyone to win with ease while Ritzenhein and Sell rolled in with gutsy performances as well. seeing KK take the alternate spot gives me some hope for another quality runner if one of the other 3 can’t run in bejing.
i was pumped from watching the coverage so i headed out for a 7 mile run out and back on the glacial drumlin trail. i headed out in 27:45 and made it back in a little over 26 minutes.
later in the afternoon, i dialed up the score of the OSU-WI game on the internet and saw that one of the trials competitors – Ryan Shay – had died of an apparent heart attack. honestly, it was stunning news to read. all of the competitors in the race had to have run at least a 2:22 marathon (or an equally fast 10000m) just to toe the line. these aren’t your run-of-the-mill athletes tilting with windmills, most of these guys earn at least part of their living as professional runners.
regardless, it was very tragic news and a stark reminder that life is short.
tgif
the sky was clear and the stars were bright this morning. temps hovered in the mid-thirties and a very light wind stirred the leaves that had fallen. i ran down the hill and picked up the glacial drumlin trail headed towards town. i made the turn at three miles with a little more than 25 minutes on my watch. heading home, i rolled back in 24 minutes and hit the shower.
as a native of the detroit area, living in WI can be challenging with all of the "green and gold" that folks sport. as of late, my two oldest daughters have jumped on the bandwagon with me to root for the honolulu blue. there’s still plenty of room on the wagon folks!
