Week 6, Key Run Workout #2

Scheduled Workout: 6 miles @ mp + 15 seconds
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, 43°F, 51% Humidity, Wind: SSW @ 8 mph; feels like 38°F.
Course: A new-ish route over familiar ground, 10k Plus, "made" using the USATF Map It! program.
Actual: 6.4 miles in :47:12 @ 6:45 a.m.
Pace: 7:26 min./mi

Of late I have not been so interested in running races to place or compete as to enjoy the experience of running. With the Boston Marathon this coming weekend, many of those in the running community seem to be focused on either running that particular race this weekend, or battling the clock to qualify to run the race next year. (In fact, while walking the dog yesterday morning, I bumped into a friend who is training for a "BQ"--Boston qualifying time... he went on and on about "twenty mile training runs", "hill repeats," "intervals" and the like. On the flip-side, when I inquired as to whether or not he would be participating in any races this weekend, he shared that though he would like to he was choosing to spend some quality time with his girlfriend instead--good for him!)

It is a significant (okay, HUGE!) accomplishment within any community, let alone the running one, to qualify for "Boston," but it seems all too engrossing for moi, so I choose to have a more recreational approach... I can't help it if occasionally few people sign up for runs and I luck into an age-group placing finish, can I?

Last evening, I had fully intended on participating in an informal five-to-seven mile trail run at Mendon Ponds Park. My plan had been in place until roughly an hour before I was to leave for the course. At that point I decided to forgo the race to go for a walk with my wife. In the end that was the more personally fulfilling activity. Sometimes I wonder: are those "normal joes" whose lives are completely consumed by training, running, cycling, whatever, doing so as a result of their lives somehow lacking something else?

To each their own, but I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to have a variety of experiences (running, family, kids) available to me...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!