Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Best Laid Plans... A Separate Peace

"The Passing of the Mug"--proof positive that the Mug Challenge mugs do in fact exist. They are now coveted by the RUR faithful. Rise Up Runners Landy Cook (left) and Mike Keene, along with Mike's daughter Olivia at the Adkins Arboretum 5K and Fun Run on April 12.

The Rise Up Runners brigade were scattered today on a running Thursday, with best intentions of afternoon trail runs and other aspirations. I put in eight miles under dark of a 4:45 sky, with the company of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, the John Butler Trio, Damian Marley, and punk/ska band Common Rider.

I had a good, easy run, the first solo in some time, having caught some combination of Landy, Joel, Charlie, or Don on any given Tuesday or Thursday. Going back to the basics of running as a solitary pursuit, makes me realize what a gift a group of friends with questionable sanity, plodding along in the dark is worth. For one, I find Hendrix's movie review skills lacking compared to Joel's.

There is a bit of a pre-race taper going on--scaling back the mileage and pace to leave fresh legs for Delaware on April 26. And then there are others among us, who decided to take advantage of a briefly opened trail running window, to go drop the hammer and set a new standard/record for the Tuckahoe 10-Mile Challenge. See Mike Keene's newest blog post about his 1:26 loop on Thursday morning. Congratulations on a great run, Wood Frog! We are all jealous not to have been able to get out there today.

Much to Landy's consternation, Mike was another log crosser today, which has the good Dr. Cook contemplating some tree removal. Stay tuned to see how that turns out.

Rumor has it, though no confirmed sightings, that Joel was breaking in new kicks around Easton this afternoon. And Charlie might have been on a conference call consulting for the San Diego Chargers as to their first round draft pick.

In any event, RUR mugs have landed, thanks to Landy, and are a big hit with the group. It is not too late to earn your own mug--join us for a morning run in April, or prove your mettle on a trail run or two. For those who have just stumbled across our group, please consult an earlier post, "The Mug Challenge."

Next general RUR run is Sunday, venue to be determined--possibly a 7-10 mile Tuckahoe run, possibly an early morning jaunt around Easton. Stay tuned and let us know if you are interested.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went for a solid 4 (maybe all I can muster solo) and pushed it a bit through out fueled mostly by a Tom Jones remix of Stoned in Love!
Post race hydration was a Bud pounder, then I tapered with Coors Light.
Beer + Pollen*heavy breathing = pounding headache this morning.

PS: as far as music goes, your new co-worker can be a massive source of new stuff.

Stephen G. Bardsley said...

Keene 1:26:36 hmmmmmm! very well done!

Runners on Trails said...

Thanks, Stephen. What I did not tell anyone is that I forgot my watch that morning, so I timed my run with my daughter's lime-green girls' watch. That's the true reason I did the log instead fording the river; I didn't want to get her watch wet. Haha. Look forward to being out there with you again.