an homage

One of the largest motivating factors for me to give my blog a purpose and start writing about my life from the perspective of being a young(ish), single man living with a heart condition was my enjoyment reading my friend Margaret's blog, Have a Good Run. Margaret writes about her experiences as a runner as she progresses from novice to half-marathon veteran and will be training for her full marathon this fall. I admired how Margaret would relate her daily runs and workouts to other aspects of her life and decided to emulate her technique.

I woke up feeling "off" again today - really I can't describe it any better than that. I recently registered to run a 10K on April 11th, and since I haven't run a distance that long since late last summer and haven't run a distance exceeding 5 miles since before Thanksgiving, I knew I needed to successfully complete at least a 6 mile run this week to feel prepared for the 10K, and I intended for that run to be today.

So I relaxed around my apartment this morning, giving my body time to wake up, and plotted out a fairly flat run of 6.25 miles that would take me into the city and around my favorite neighborhood, Back Bay - originally I wanted to run 6 miles along a path with some serious inclines. At around 12:30 I was satisfied with the temperature outside and how I was feeling and set out on my way. I did take my Charlie card with me, in part because I planned to finish my run a few T stops away from my apartment, and in part because I knew that if I couldn't run the full distance I would be able to T it home from wherever I would up - and yes, I did just use "T" as a verb.

It was a good albeit interesting run. Being Good Friday, a lot of people have off work today and the city sidewalks were busier than usual as a result. I also had terrible luck hitting red lights so there were a lot of momentary stops, which may have actually been a good thing for me today. Oh, and I witnessed a traffic accident - actually, to be accurate and dissolve myself of any legal obligation, I heard the accident happen but didn't actually see it.

About 55 minutes later - I don't keep exact track of my times - I reached my destination. Adjusted for the stationary moments waiting for traffic lights to turn green, I ran at a sub 8:30 pace - even with the stops my pace was sub 9:00. And most importantly, I felt good at the end of the run. Physically it wasn't too strenuous or arduous for me, and personally I'm really pleased to have successfully run a distance of 10K. I feel ready for my race next weekend and am definitely looking forward to it, both for the challenge and for some rather personal reasons as well - though the quick glance I just took at the 10 day forecast for Cohasset, MA could've made me happier.