Thankful for the gift. Each and every day

Sunday, November 29, 2009

16 Weeks till 2010 Shamrock Marathon

Sunday: 18 miles.
While in Pennsylvania for the Thanksgiving weekend, I completed my visit back home with an 18 mile tour of Tyler State Park (My old stomping ground in high school, which has a lot of historical background in the sport of distance running. Some of the best runners in Pennsylvania history used this park as their key training spot. The best way to describe Tyler park is HILLY! There is about a 1 and 1/2 mile stretch that is flat (along the Neshaminy Creek)... The remainder is up and down.
Todays 18 miler consisted of the Polar Bear 8miler loop x2 and then an out 1mile and back in. I felt great the entire run... Which I was surprised... as I ran a 25:36 5miler on thursday (11 in for day), Friday was an easy 8miler, Saturday I ran a 32:14 10k for the victory ($100bucks) also completing a 13 mile day. Thanksgiving break did not consist much of a break but I feel that it will be all worth it come March!
Monday: 8 miles.
I bit my lip and braved the cold rain early this evening in Germantown Park for an 8 mile run. I was hesitant about running in Germantown Park after yesterdays 18 mile tour of Tyler park. Germantown Park (Germantown SoccerPlex Grounds) is a hilly area. I ran the 2 + loop and then treked into the woods on the mountain bike trails for about 1 and half miles. As i entered the dark woods, I noticed some bright orange figures up ahead... HUNTERS!!! I have no idea why they were on the mountain bike trails as I was almost certain that is an area that was off limits to hunters. Either way, I continued on by and gave a wave.... 5 minutes later I was back tracking and this time they did not seem happy to see me... At this time, I was weary about running past these 2 armed men in orange... Just the fact that there are two random guys in an almost dark wooded area standing behind me (no one else around) with loaded shotguns...
Run felt good... got in some nice strides to end it off.