Today was another 8 mile run in the training program. There was this new guy there early on. When we asked what distance he was training for he said "marathon, has anyone heard of a half-marathoner?" - I just raised my arms in the air and said "27 half marathon finishes baby." He seemed pretty impressed by that and moved on. While I have finished a marathon and am training for the full at Monumental, I still consider myself a "half-marathoner" - and there are LOTS of us.
This week we were using the Central Canal Tow Path instead of the Monon. Nice change of scenery except for the goose gauntlets along the way. The tow path has a lot of geese, especially near Broad Ripple, and they like to congregate on the trail. The generally hiss at you if you get too close. It's not a good experience for people with "bird issues." Also lots of bird poop which always sets of "histoplasmosis" in my head.
I was able to maintain paces in the range recommended by the McMillian Running Calculator for all but one kilometer split. So it was faster than last week and in the right range. The humidity was 100% again and it started raining somewhere near halfway, but it didn't really matter much. I started out with three people new to the club who are run/walking. They seem pretty fun. One of them needed a pit stop a few miles out so I got ahead of them and they were doing 6 miles so I didn't see them again, but it might be fun to start with them each week.
After the run I headed over to the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market. I was looking for asparagus, but only one vendor seemed to have any left and he didn't take plastic...so, I ended up buying some fresh mozzarella. After the market I decided to stop in Einstein Bagels for a chocolate milk and maybe something to eat. In line, Todd Oliver came up to me and said they had a group there and I was welcome to join them. He also let me know that one of our fellow runners had cancer and was going through treatment. Our friend was joining us. It was good to be with the group and support our friend...we prayed with him and for him as well. I am so glad I stopped in Einstein. Our friend is super healthy (other than some beer consumption) and kills running miles so it is scary that he has cancer. But he has a great attitude about it. I wish him the best.
We all run for different reasons, but we support each other along the way.
I'm a planner. And a dork. And I wrote a lot of Vision 2020 plans around 2000 so now that it is 2020 everything feels weird. Ok, that's out of my system. Let's talk about 2020. I've already done a self-assessment of last year and met with coach to plan 2020. Everything is focused on Ironman Wisconsin on September 13.The milestones have been set, but there will be some infill along the way. Milestone 1: Carmel Marathon - I did a spring marathon (also Carmel) in 2018 ahead of Louisville and it seemed like a good idea to do that again. So for the 10th Carmel Marathon I am running the full. Spring marathons feel undertrained compared to fall because the time between recovering from fall and getting ramped up to multiple 20 mile training runs is not there. I take the spring effort as a see what happens sort of race. Must finish to keep the streak alive, but I will see how everything else unfolds. Milestone 2: TourdeLou - not so much of a race as a supported event ride ...
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