last day of april,12 mile run and a cold heavy rainstorm

we were up at 5am and out of the house so gail could catch the 6am bus to london to do some work research there. from the bus station i headed east towards the oxford sport center past the bodleian library and the holywell music hall as well as several college campuses and then out high st. actually ran past gail's bus as it had to wind around town and was stopped picking up some passengers at the queen lane stop. was hoping to run a little on the roger bannister track that was supposed to be opened at 7am. was still early for that so i took a loop around christ church park and was one of many early morning runners watching the sun break through the clouds knowing that the forecast called for heavy rain starting at 7am.

ran the big loop and a shorter version and headed over to the track, which by chance, was not going to open until 8am today. so much for planning, so i headed around the sports complex and down meadow lane. wide enough for one car, but mostly used by students on bikes headed to the sports center, this lane ran a long way north and south and while side was student housing or apt flats, the other side was parks, nature reserves and playgrounds. pretty and quiet also as a few bikes passed me going north and a couple of faster runners passed me going sought. i hadn't expected to be going fast today, but was moving down the lane as best i could.

went down to the end and cut over the donnington bridge which brought me back to the thames river path and turned north. several college crew teams were out and their coaches rode up and down the path shouting instructions - one was particularly funny to me as a woman coach yelled to her 8 woman on the water that their legs should be burning by then and i was thinking my own quads were that way also. up ahead at the abingdon road bridge the crews all turned around and headed back to the boat house area while i kept going north and in to grandpont nature park.

today i decided to run all the way back into the park despite the wet grass and see how far back it went. was drizzling a little now and i ran past several rabbits who must have wondered what i was doing back there. no sign of anything back here but parkland, but the grass was soft to run on and it was very peaceful. i did a loop around the back of the park and turned back and took the long way back to the thames path. and turning north i caught up to a woman who was just bouncing up and down while she ran. couldn't go too fast that way which is why i was able to catch up to her at this point. said good morning and surprise of surprise she said good morning in return. asked me where i was headed and i said rainbow bridge. she was going to botley so we hung out together for the next mile plus a little.

she wanted to know if i knew how she could get faster. easy to answer that one, but the obvious quick fix was to change her form. so we tried an experiment as we ran and i had her move her feet back underneath her more and push off on her big toes- many of my runners have heard that one. anyway, not that i am Einstein the coach but she immediately was going forward instead of up and down and when she dropped her arms some that helped even more. the pace had picked up enough for me i can say and i suggested that she look into joining the headington road runners and do their speedwork with them. something i should be doing myself, but their schedule just doesn't work for me. anyway, lisa went off at botley and i headed up the thames towards the rainbow bridge. maybe my role in life is to give 2 minute coaching lessons to new runners. who knows?

i spent the next two miles asking myself whether i wanted to run 16 more marathons for an even 200 or try to run faster 5k's with less training than the marathons would take, leaving some time for golf. no answer yet. my brain wants to do the marathons. my right leg wants to do 5k's. either way i was still going north and the trail was now pretty muddy. they had cut down lots of trees and cleared paths for their heavy equipment, so where runoff had been stopped before, water was now able to hit the trail. by now the usual band of suspects were out running and we exchanged our good mornings. i was about 11 miles into it and decided that was enough so i headed back home. about 12 miles in all, maybe a little more. the cold heavy rain made me quickly think that there was real need to muddle through though 3 more miles. 10 was the original goal. now for a hot shower and some food.

sitting here now two loads of laundry behind me and also the shower and breakfast, while the rain still pours down. was hoping for a longer day of golf hitting, but don't really feel like walking outside just yet. will see where we stand a little later and can finish my latest book forecast is for 5 more days of rain- were you surprised? tomorrow will be may day here and though it almost feels like spring wants to come out, it is in actuality more like fall weather. it was 42 degrees when i started out this morning and will be low 40's the rest of the week along with the rain. i see more and more why people here cherish every moment of sun they get. i myself am not looking forward to virginia's humidity.

washer stopped and it is time to hang up clothes. three months to go from today.