Night into Day

ORN: 10.2 mi, 1:37:10, 9:32/mile

After the intense wind of the past two days, a cold front moved in, making the sky at 5:10am crystal clear. Coupled with a very full moon, the night was bright. Shadows were very sharp and I could actually read my Garmin by simply the moon. It was beautiful.

And the cool thing about a long run is that it is long. Things happen in 90 minutes. The moon sank. The eastern sky brightened. Venus faded into the early shades of blue and then really blue sky as the sun finally peeked over the horizon as I got home. After a long winter, it is so cool to see the sun at the end of a run. There is hope.

The birds wake up on a long run. Silence early. Then the honking of the noisy geese along the bog. Smaller birds in the woods on the way back. The world awakens, both for a new day but also awaking to the very early glimmers of a new season.

Oh yeah, the run?? Good. This is my peak milage week getting ready for a marathon in only a little over 3 weeks (gee, can it really be??). The first 4 miles today felt tight, out of rhythm, like I was still waking up (I probably was). Then the good stuff kicked in. My shoulders relaxed, I was working less and gliding more (as much as a 195 pound 52 year old guy can ever "glide" :-) ). 20 miles on Saturday...that will be a new test.

I'm shooting to carry the 9:45 pace through to race day. Today, though, I sought to run comfortably. Cool that I could do that, as shown below in the splits. Plus, the soreness in my right quad that I've been figting for a month or more seems to have finally given up and gone away.

Good run, followed by a good day. Enjoy these.

Splits:
9 39
9 23
9 52
9 39
9 34
9 21
9 45
9 26
9 26
9 13
1 47 (at 8 58 pace)

Persevere.