...and when did the lack of a plan ever stop me?
During my trip up to New Hampshire I got in a couple of decent runs and discovered another cool aspect of being a runner. The network that appears just by being out there and running.
About a year or so ago now, I was doing a group run in the Outer Banks with some of my fellow Outer Banks Running Club members and we had someone join us while she was on vacation. Sharon had found the through facebook and put in a dozen or so miles with us if I remember that right. I learned that she was from New Hampshire and had done all sorts of tri's, marathons and ultras including a 200 mile relay race. My wife and I had gone to New Hampshire for our honeymoon so I mentioned our trip up Mt. Washington and how amazing the wind and weather was up there. Sharon said they have a road race there every year that's about 8 miles in length with an elevation gain of about 4000 feet. The t-shirts say, "There's only one hill."
New England understatement.
Well, Sharon and I friended on facebook, so when this trip came up I got some great tips on a place to run while I was up in Attitash. Very cool of her. And I met her because of running.
And as for running in New England: The first morning there I did an 8 mile run and it was only 36 degrees out. Four days later I got up to run and it was 82. Yeesh.... Glad I packed a bunch of stuff.
Plus I guess you have to carry bear repellent if you're ever going to run trails. We went out for a walk and weren't 100 feet away from the condos and I saw this
And in case you can't see it, my footprint is in the top left corner of that picture. Apparently the bear was heavier than me by a good bit. What do you do if you came across a 250 pound bear while running? Keep running? I don't want to find out what works and what doesn't.
At any rate the week allowed me some rest and recovery by taking 7 days off from intense stuff and I'm ready to get back to it. I read almost all of Greg McMillan's new book, You (Only Faster), and it's really motivated me. I've got my first of three track meets coming up on June 22nd where I'll be running the 1500 and the 800, with the focus on the 1500. The third meet is on August 4th not too far from Bob's neck of the woods, in Hershey, PA and I'm really looking forward to that one since it's supposed to be a pretty big event.
With the extra inspiration running through my head I started looking at the indoor meets I could and put on my schedule the Indoor Nationals which are in Boston in March, and the Outdoor Nationals that will be in Winston-Salem, NC next July. Those will be my target times to peak and we'll see if I can find a little more speed. Speaking of that while looking for meets to run I came across the facebook page for last year's Indoor Nationals and they had thousands of pictures! It only took 11 hours of digging, but I found a few of me. I jest, they were in order by the day so it was easy to find the M45 800, but I would have dug none the less.
Here's the start with me scared to death and standing next to Khalid Mulazim and a dozen other ridiculously fast people:
So cool that my daughter was there to yell, "yay dad!" when the stadium went silent after they announced my name and where I was from. That's her with the two phones taking pictures!
And then there's this one of me actually running.
It was a total rush to be out there running as fast as I could, and I can't wait to get back to it!
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