Cowboy Hazel

As you can imagine, I ended up reading quite a bit of my old writing while going through my old blog and separating out the running posts. It was a good exercise, I think, and something I should do more often. I sometimes get frustrated with being slower than my running buddies or not being able to put in the weekly miles I'd like to without my body giving me hell. But going back and seeing where I was last year helped put that all into perspective and reminded me that I have improved a lot recently. It also makes me excited to see where I'll be a year from now, two years from now.

Here's a few highlights:

On March 24, 2008, I wrote:

As of today, I've run more this March than any other month since October 2003. And I still have another week to add more mileage. Even so, I'm not going to make the 100 mile goal that I set for myself. I'm at 59.3 now and will probably end up at about 80. I think I may have been overly idealistic when expecting to suddenly bounce back to hundred mile months. I had forgotten how much pain comes along with them.

I ended up with 82. Ha! Most of the months this year have been double that, and the last couple have been near triple. Seeing this helped a bunch because, again, it's really been bugging me lately that I can't put up the mileage other folks out there can.

Then on May 11th, I finished my first two loop run in Central Park:

I finally ran two laps of the Central Park Drive loop yesterday morning! It was something I had been trying (unsuccessfully) to do for almost a month. Crossing it off my list of things I need to accomplish definitely felt good. My body, however, did not feel good. I basically lost all of yesterday to this run.

I ran longer than this yesterday morning before work. In fact, I run 12+ miles most Wednesday mornings these days and it gets me off to a great, energetic start rather than taking up the entire day's energy. It's crazy to think that I used to think of a 12 miler as a long run.

And, finally, I have to return to my first marathon. It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since that first trip out to Philly. I learned a lot that day – not to go out too fast, not to take the distance for granted, and then how to start bouncing back after a truly shitty performance. It's funny to think that my way too fast first half last year is the conservative target I'll be holding myself back to this year. But even if the times are different, the principles are not. I need to take everything I learned back then with me as I return to Philadelphia in two weeks, looking for redemption.