blog or email and another pretty day

it was either blog or email and here i am blogging. will catch up on emails tomorrow.

up early today and out the door to run as the sun was coming up. really pretty actually. and up binsey lane i went and to the church, my normal beginning to a run when i am staying close to home. it is a mile and a half to the church on a relatively quiet lane and a good place to wake up and loosen up and get into the flow of things. another 46 heart rate this morning btw. it is 31 degrees.

went up to the church and stopped briefly to stretch a bit and say good morning to mr. plow horse, who snorted my way and went back to grazing. then down and over the boat marina road and north on the thames. ran into carol from cambridge, now oxford, walking her dog, and jogged next to her to catch up. a short bit of excitement followed as her bulldog and a passing muzzled rescued greyhound got into a bit of a spat and were called off of it quickly. lots of loud territorial growling i suppose.

then off again up the river as the crew teams were coming out to practice. the "8"'s were out today and they must have been upper classmen as they were all in sync and really moving as their coach yelled out instructions.

turned around at the tree cemetary-where the big trunks are laying down- and headed down the thames and over to fiddler's island, a channel of the river. the swans and ducks and geese were all having a good time as the sun came over them and the frost started to melt away.

did a turnaround run, meaning i went down the river and then back up rather than going over to the canal. was really nice out and i wanted to see it from a different angle. george sheehan always said that if you turned around it was like doing a different run and in this case he would have been right. the river was now on the left and the channel was on the right and the sun was behind me making it seem like i was running up an alley of sunlight. too pretty for an amateur like me to do justice trying to describe, but we have all seen the sun's rays coming down through the trees i suppose. saw my friend david out walking his own rescued greyhound. as they have greyhound racing in oxford, there are lots of rescued dogs to be had here and the kind people do so. i promised himi would do the boar's hill run soon and tell him about it. it will be a long hilly and beautiful run. did i say very long?

finally back down again and over to do a loop around the neighborhood by the train station and down one of my favorite sections, a 3 minute run down the widening channel along the allotments towards botley road. the allotments are where people who don't have gardens can rent land for very little money and grow flowers and vegetables. most hold onto their plots for years. then scooted down botley road towards home. all in all a nice 8 mile effort. steady if nothing else.

77, 735 miles done since i started keeping track and 184 marathons. is there a reason to go for 200 before i stop? what is it about round numbers?

picked up some fresh bread and fruit and bottled water and went home.

then the ususal stuff at home and off to hit some golf balls. worked really hard on my swing today. redoing it is hard, but i believe in the end it will be better. 240 balls later i was back home and off to my book club. bumped into gail at cornmarket, a market street of sorts with no cars allowed, and we stopped for a snack and drink to catch up on our day's activities.

book club met at the pizza express and we had a good group tonight discussing ian mc ewan's " on chesil beach".

and that was pretty much the day, with even more cumbersome stuff left out of this daily diatribe. was a pretty day with no rain. i am one of the few people here who likes the weather. might not if i were a golfer, but it is good running weather for sure.

8 miles of running and 4 miles of walking and driving range practice gave me my exercise for the day. tomorrow we start all over again. 169 to go.

baseball is upon us, the primaries are in virginia and the skins have a new surprise for a coach.
listening to roxette and indigo girls singing. not a bad day!

btw- if you have not tried you-tube for music you should. start with neil young's four strong winds.