Thursday September 2
Medium run, 8 miles, 1:29:25; splits 10:27, 12:09, 11:36, 10:45, 10:09, 11:24, 11:12, 11:44

As the miles add up I am really starting to feel leg soreness. Specifically, my right thigh has been hurting for quite a while--a nagging pain that I can't pinpoint. Not in all positions, but when I walk it hurts. A library patron who's a marathoner and has been offering me her advice told me that road camber can be a real problem (which I've heard from other sources too). I can't avoid it, but starting on this run I've been trying to run on the right on the dirt roads. On the paved roads it's too dangerous. I hope it will balance out.

An overcast morning. I saw the same red fox from a few weeks ago, just across the road from where it was before. As I passed the first farm on Moran Road, there were steers loose on the verge. One stuck its tail up and thundered past me. I debated whether I should call the people when I got home, although that would be more than an hour later. Further along I heard a dog barking and someone shouting in the woods, along with general commotion sounds, so it was probably whoever owned them trying to round them up again. Got passed by the first schoolbus of the season--I like waving at the drivers, who always seem friendly. On Stanley Lake road, there was a showy but small white flower growing in the ditch which I couldn't find in wildflower guides. It must be some escaped garden plant, a chrysanthemum/aster relative. Something that looked just like a wooly bear caterpillar crossed the road, but it was reddish brown on the ends with a very tiny black saddle (instead of vice versa).

Friday September 3
Short run, 3.75ish miles, 34:56; splits 9:22, 9:04, 9:05--bogus times?!?

I was in Brooklyn (NYC, must specify because there is a Brooklyn in Susquehanna County PA!) for the weekend helping out my brother. There's a track in a park near his aparment and that's where I went. Terrible, terrible run, and the first I've abandoned part-way through. It was hot & humid; I hadn't had enough sleep; the track was in full sun and I not only forgot my hat but also stupidly turned down Matthew's offer of sunscreen; I wasn't properly hydrated; I was stressed; it was unfamiliar territory; and I hate tracks. I would rather run a 10 mile loop than 5 miles on a track any day (twenty laps of the exact same thing! bleah!)

The first mile or so went OK but as I got hotter & started to realize all the things I had done wrong, and as I remembered how incredibly dull tracks are (even a busy one like this, with lots of people to watch) and the prospect of 16 more laps loomed, it got harder and harder. It didn't help that my Forerunner beeped for the first mile at 3 3/4 laps. If I had really been running flat miles in well under 10 minutes I would have been happy, but when my Forerunner is clearly giving me wrong data it's very discouraging.

So I started doing "runner's math"--counting down laps, figuring I could leave the track at 18 laps & run the rest of the way back to Matthew's apartment (even though it would be on concrete sidewalks or in traffic)--but I was feeling worse and worse. I started to get the sinking feeling in my stomach that means "what I have I gotten myself into?" My legs kept arguing with my brain, insisting on walking if I lost focus for a second. I told myself that toughing it out would be good practice for marathon day. Only five miles, for cripes' sake! But then I started to think that if I was dehydrated and gave myself even a touch of heat exhaustion, that would be really bad. I was there in NYC to do my brother a favor and I needed to be 100% if possible. I was away from the comforts of home and wouldn't be able to recuperate properly if I needed to. It *wasn't* marathon day, and making a short run shorter wouldn't be that big of a deal. I finally decided that in this case discretion was the better part of valor and I left the track at 3.25 "miles" (according to the Forerunner) and ran back to the apartment. I'm not sure how long the run really was--probably closer to 3 miles total than to 4.

I grew up in Manhattan and I noticed that the grass in this park had the same scent I associate with Central Park--sort of a penetrating sweetness. It's probably the white clover, but I don't know why it's so much more prominent in NYC parks than in our own lawn. Myabe because it's crushed under so many feet, possibly combined with something in the gritty soil?
- posted by Hilary @ 1:10 PM