I finally returned to active event participation and it felt great! I signed up with my buddy Jack and convinced him to go on some runs with me over the past couple of months. The first couple were 2 miles and I slowly progressed him up to almost 4. I had figured that, while he would make the full distance, he might not run much more than that and we would walk a lot towards the end. Plus, I didn’t know for sure how much I could run either.
It was fun to be pleasantly surprised on both counts. He is funny to run with. I usually spend my runs zoned out or concentrating on some technical aspect of running form. It keeps me distracted from fatigue and helps get through tough sections. Jack just wants to talk the whole time, like literally, the whole time. We talked about pace, stride length, how to appropriately jockey for position, bathrooms (including all 8 year old topics related to bathrooms) and jokes. He asked about the new Star Wars movies, old Star Wars movies, “Can I have a popcicle?”, “What if it was called a ‘poopcicle’? ”
He was concerned at first that we would get lost, but once he realized we were following a herd of 50,000 people that seemed to go away. I let him dictate the pace, when he wanted to walk we did and when he was ready to run we did that too. All told we ran a lot more than I thought, I figured about 5 miles of the 7+ including all the way up Doomsday hill!
I had no trouble either so that was great. I could have run the whole way and a lot faster for sure. No chance of a personal best but that’s ok, it was still the longest run I had done since the accident so any positive outcome was a win.
Next year is the 40th Bloomsday so I think I will try to do that one solo. Hillary can take Jack and get him his poopcicle.
Me and my iPhone
iPhone is lacking in serious musical needs. Sticking with some older mixes but nothing really interesting to report.
A one day kettlebell certification similar to one I’ve done before is coming to Spokane in August. So, with my knee at a consistent 85-90% I’ll be getting back into my routines again.