Satisfied

The morning was a little misty, well there was a light misty rain as I went out the door.There were just the usual stalwart runners out at the 2 mile race. I started of about the same as always and felt good throughout the race. Sitting back in 7th place I went through the first mile in 7:08 and finished strong in 14:17 and was quite satisfied with that. I am managing to maintain good times for my 2 mile races. there will of course be a break since I have a 24 hour race next week.

Hiccups

Hiccups are interesting things they are not completely incapacitating, but they can be very annoying. I have not had them for quite a while, but I did yesterday afternoon and this afternoon, for about 5 minutes each time. I find that if I relax my breathing a little it does not take too long for them to go away.
I had a short but very powerful run this afternoon, it felt really good.

5 Months

My run this afternoon marked the 5th month that I have not missed a day of running. My philosophy is to just feel when I want to go out and run and unless it's a race day, not have any preconceived idea of how far I will run. In this way I find I totally enjoy my running and when I run every day my body is happy to run. I am very happy with how my running is going right now.

Shea Stadium

A beautiful fall morning greeted us as we set out for our run. It was time for us to start doing our runs out to Shea stadium. It is the first time since the Spring that we have done this run. In the middle of the run I started feeling like I was really hungry and losing energy, despite that fact that I eaten a granola bar before leaving the house. I tried to ignore it and it went away. We maintained what I thought was a good pace for us. Stopping on the way back for our traditional Hot Chocolate, it was the longest run since the marathon in August.

Oh my goodness!

With a temperature of only 52F, the conditions were nice and cool for the 2 mile race. I had been feeling a little off the last couple of days, but was still optimistic. At the start it felt like I was running slow, but I was up there with the leaders so I knew I was not. I settled into 5th place and just after the first mile in 7:07 was passed by the first placed woman. I stayed with her and passed her going up the one hill on the course. She passed me back and I tried to stay with her for the rest of the race. As I approached the clock I saw that it had just passed 14 minutes and crossed the line in 14:11, my second fastest time in 3 years.

Sore throat

Woke up with a sore throat this morning, but other than that I was fine. Met Utpal on the corner at the usual time. It was cool but quite humid. We ran the 10k loop at a relaxed pace. It was suggested that we maybe go out again in the afternoon. but by the afternoon I did not feel I wanted to run a second time.

Same conditions, same time

The conditions for the 2 mile race this week were the same as last week. It rained overnight, was cool but humid in the morning. This week I had a couple of familiar runners in the race and this helped me with my pace. I was 2 seconds faster through the first mile 7:0, but 2 seconds slower in the second mile. So my finish time was the same 14:27. I am happy that I am consistent.

Remembering 9/11

Seven years ago today I was flying on a plane from Europe to New York. When we got withing about 3 hours of our destination we were told something had happened and we would be returning to Vienna. I spent the next 4 days in a hotel there watching everything unfold from afar. It was very strange for me to return to New York on September 15, the first plane to arrive in JFK. I have never flown into an airport that is completely quiet. Also seeing the plume of smoke rising from lower Manhattan as we made our approach was very eerie.

After the storm

Tropical storm Hanna, which what was left of hurricane Hanna hit around 3 pm yesterday. It was pretty heavy for a couple of hours. but then became just a steady rain. By this morning it was nice for my Sunday run. However Utpal is suffering from a late summer cold, so we just ran what I call my 5k loop. Which was fine with me since I was still feeling sore from the race yesterday.

Improvement

There was some rain overnight so of course it was humid this morning ( so what's new!). The race field was small this week, only about 20 runners. I was in fact in third place at one time early on, getting passed by 3 runners ( one of them the first woman finisher) about half way through. I tried to use them to keep my pace. I went through the first mile in 7:08. It was hard to breath with the humidity at 91%, but I held on as well as I could. My finishing time was 14:27, second best this year. So my fitness is still good.