Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reason #11

For those of you who read Landy's top ten list below and thought, "Yeah, you know, I SHOULD get up early and exercise... maybe I'll take up cycling?" I will offer the above photo as a visual for REASON #11: because running is SO much cheaper than biking. Sure it's tougher on joints and ligaments, but think of all the money you'll save up front! They haven't started making $5,000 running shoes...yet.

Easton is way too big for running tag. I determined that on my rare Wednesday Rise Up run this morning. I figured this out because I ran from 4:10 a.m. to 6:05 a.m. and during that time, I don't think I saw a single Rise Up Runner out there ;) Alright, I am actually pretty sure I saw Lori go by on Washington Street, as I was coming up Harrison, but that was a fair distance away.

I like to call my running route for the morning a "Deluxe Charlie TTZZ." For those curious just what a Deluxe Charlie TTZZ looks like, I roughed it out on Map My Run--voila. 13.1 miles from my crib, go up Aurora, wait for a couple minutes at 4:30 a.m. at the RUR corner, then follow Washington Street out to the bypass; bypass back to Oxford Road; Oxford Road up to Cooke's Hope (vs. the regular Charlie that goes to Cedar Point Road); back to Washington Street; Washington Street to Harrison; back up Harrison to Idlewild; Idlewild to Rails to Trails; RTT all the way to the North Easton Sports Complex; victory loop around the baseball field loop; then back to my house. I did a few pick-ups during the run and finished in 1:55, without ever really pushing the pace--the goal was a distance day about 10 days out from our 50K in Delaware.

With no RUR peeps and no ipod, it was an observation day. I startled a fox going out over Papermill Pond, who scampered back into the brush. I likewise disturbed the deer grazing at the Doe Cafe across from Easton Club; I caught a couple Talbot Sheriff cars zipping off to somewhere down Oxford Road, only to return in less of a hurry; saw a dead deer in the ditch by Cedar Point. And then the most memorable man meets nature scene of the morning.

As I was making my way back to the bypass to cruise back into town, a Chevy pickup truck turned onto Oxford Road, as a raccoon decided to scurry across. PLUNK! Front bumper caught him and spun him into a heap. I thought, this will be pretty as I got a little closer. The raccoon was laying still in a pile; I am not sure if he was stunned (I sure would have been) or part possum, but as I came closer, he literally shook it off, looked around and continued his scamper to the other side! As of this writing, his status is unknown, but I was pretty impressed by both his tenacity and his stealthiness. He's got a quite a story for his mates for the mid-morning raccoon coffee break.

With Keene's 70.3 triathlon under his belt, the next RUR runner with a race is Landy, this weekend at the Lake Placid Marathon. His wife Megan is running the half-marathon, so good luck to the Cooks on the road course on Sunday! We'll expect photos and a good report after the weekend.

And after that, Derek, Lori, Landy, and I are off to Delaware for a 50K fun run. Stay tuned and stay hydrated!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perfect, our reasons to run goes up to eleven!

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

Michael Valliant said...

Haha - one of the greatest movie dialogue sequences of all time. Long live Spinal Tap!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that was probably me...today was the first of what I like to call "structured" workouts in my training plan...it was supposed to be 7 with 4 at tempo. Turned out to be 8 with 4 at tempo because I needed an extra cooldown mile on my legs before the 30 min drive to KI.
I expect another early am run tomorrow, then Friday off and something longish on Saturday. I'm thinking about (and starting to get nervous about) the 50K more and more as it gets closer.
Good luck to Landy in Lake Placid this weekend!