VICTORY!

Today was a day of little wins.

Miracle of miracles I ran my first sub 12 minute mile. I am 100% sure it was due to the fact that I had zombies on my ass twice in that span of time. But hey I’ll take it. I actually had a bit of a mini freak out when my gps app announced my time, just as I was passing an older couple going the opposite way. They were treated to me jumping in the air and pumping my fist, and wearing an expression so stupidly happy it bordered on the absurd. I’m sure they thought that I had escaped from the loony bin abut at that moment I really couldn’t have cared less.

 

I actually went a full four miles without walking, granted it was still at my normal shamble/jog but this has been the longest distance I have been able to go without having to stop my trot to a walk. Granted the last mile or so was shambled out of a pure refusal to allow myself to have gone that far and end up walking at the end. Here’s the thing I found about setting a good pace, for me at the least the key is finding a song that you can really rock out to and lose yourself in it. It takes away the fatigue and really allows you to soar. I actually found myself singing along like a loon half way through when “come on feel the noize” came on. I’m sure the walkers on the trail thought I was a crazy person.

 

Speaking of music, I have had in my running play list a dubstep Lost Woods  by Ephixa along with several other mixes but it had yet to come up. Then a strangely appropriate time it came up.

oh you have got to be kidding me

 

I have to say there is very little more surreal than running through a landscape while listening to a song seemingly designed for it. I may as well have had a master-sword on my hip and a shield on my back. A little bit of geeking out apparently goes a long way with me, perhaps gamifying this running thing could work in the long term.
Weirdness upon weirdness I emerge from the trail to be greeted by what I can only assume is an AARP brigade with their equally old cars. None of them were there when I arrived and there was no indication that just such an event was happening that day, I would have parked a ways a way had I known.

 

 

Side note: when a exhausted runner politely asks you to move because your blocking her car move. I had to practically hit a centenarian to get him to vacate his viewing space.

In conclusion: running fast rocks, people suck.

-THR

 

Inconsistent Running

Wow, how long has it been kids? Almost a month? Yeah it turns out that I’m not particularly good at keeping up with either actually running or writing about it. So like the procrastinator I am I blamed my lack of interest in running on the fact that I no longer have access to the lake house from Location, Location, Location  weirdly enough the people who actually paid for the place want to use it in the summer. How inconsiderate of them.

So I wallowed, and bemoaned my lack of awesome scenic running venues, running through my city is just no fun. It also doesn’t help that my house is situated near a devil hill which kills any enthusiasm within the first five minutes. Until as I was complaining to a friend he said

 

“you know there is a lake like twenty seconds from your house right?”

 

…..

 

“no”

 

Turns out they were right there IS a lake with an honest to god running trail (26mi long!) not a ten minutes away from where I live. *Surprise* So making great use of my day off I grabbed my gear and found myself on what is apparently a really well known local land mark. Here’s the thing, running here was not only tolerable, it was fun. There is one big established trail that spans the full 26 miles but there are also those lovely little side trails with very little paths to connect them, the kind of place where you have to use little impromptu rock/branch bridges to get across.

 

 

I may have fallen in

 

It reminded me of being a kid on an adventure, music blasting through my ears I embraced the fun of not knowing where the hell I was, what I was doing or when I was going to get back to my car. Who needs little things like a trail map, or a GPS to let you know that you didn’t accidentally get yourself hopelessly lost? Certainly not me, in fact I was hoping that I might just run myself into Narnia or  Middle Earth. No such luck, but who can really complain when you’re running route now includes things like a drain pipe to run through?

 

Secret Tunnel!

 

Upon reflection it could be that the path to the left is going over the aforementioned drain pipe and I could have avoided it entirely. But where is the fun in that? I choose to run through the nasty drain pipe because adventure! Bonus: I found another race to run, a poster was stapeld to a bridge around two miles in, turns about the “Massabesic Mallard Madness’ crew really know how to do their marketing. Because hey, we’re clearly running this crap in our free time who better to run for a historical association? We’ll run for nothing but a race with a silly ass name.

 

you thought I was kidding?

 

 

Suffice to say I have found my new regular “day off” running spot. The trail is too long and too fun to run when I have to go into work. (I spent two hours there today) but with my schedule changing I may just come here more regularly. I even set a new distance record, six miles of a sad jog/walk/shamble down and only a million more to go.

 

 

 

 

Until next time folks!

 

-TGR