Fantastic

Fantastic is the best way to describe today's run. Since I've been feeling stronger lately, it was time to really test myself. I started at the Art Museum and ran to Strawberry Mansion Avenue and back. To date, my longest run was 4 miles on Monday. This one was 5.5 miles. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be laughing at how short and easy it was, but right now this is a big accomplishment.

I started off strong. I was a little worried because my hip was tight early on, but it got better as I ran. There are too long stretches of stone to run on during this session and that was a big help in cushioning the pounding that my knee took. The second area of stone was tricky because of the way it drains, it forms hills. It was still helpful though.

One thing that always worries me are all the geese out there. When I was passing a walker, a goose started running towards me a couple steps. I paused and it stopped and I kept going. I'm not really sure why it came towards me. Later on, I ran in between about 20 of them. They aren't too bothered by runners I guess, but I just never know. I'm especially concerned because some of them have babies this time of year and might protect them.

I was very surprised at how well this run went, especially after the halfway point. Shortly after turning around and heading home, I became tired and felt sluggish. My feet began dragging. I concentrated on keeping good form though. I also started using all the bridges that run overhead as intervals, telling myself "take it one bridge at a time."

I felt some minor soreness in my leg as I came towards the end of the run. More than that though, the long distance was wearing me down. I began thinking that I'd probably be able to finish, but the end of the run was really just junk miles.

Then I got to boathouse row and saw a slow female runner a few hundred yards ahead. I wanted to pass her before the end of boathouse row and I was able to do just that. It's amazing how much a runner up ahead like that can cause you to pickup your pace. When I pushed it the soreness and tiredness were forgotten. That was the start of my strongest finish yet.

Right after passing her, I started heading up big hill on the side of the Art Museum. This was the final hurdle in this long run. Getting up the hill was a little tough, but for whatever reason I was just made to run hills. I guess a lot of people probably slow down and tire easily going uphill. I do the opposite, I push harder and get up it much faster. I'm not really sure what causes that, but I've always excelled on hills. I actually slowed down a lot after I reached flat ground again. I then finished the final few hundred years in sprint mode.

It was great to not only run far, but really push myself at the end too. My knee is really starting to bother me less and less. I think the gradual buildup combined with some good stretching is really helping. Actually, the one thing that was sore today oddly enough was my right arm. I'm not sure why that was the case, but I had to stretch it out a bit. Of course now that I'm done running, just about every muscle is sore sitting around here.

I'm really starting to look seriously into running a marathon. I checked out the Philadelphia Marathon website yesterday to see some of the basics. I also read the first two chapters in a marathon training book that I had. If my knee can hold up and I can get up to doing 10+ mile runs within the next two months, I'm going to give the marathon a go. The Philly one would work out good because it is in late November so I'd have a lot of time to prepare. I can't believe how far the course actually goes. It would be a tough challenge, but it's something I definitely want to do.

Tomorrow and Sunday will be relaxing off days. I think I'll do some shorter runs on Monday and Tuesday. I'll likely jump on the bike on Wednesday and do some speedwork on Thursday. I'm now approaching my sixth week of running and I'm very happy with the progress I'm making. Let's hope it stays that way.