3:26:33 was today's run- 6/26/08

was so disgusted with yesterday's failed attempts to hit a golf ball somewhere near where i was aiming that i vowed to just run today as long as my morning heart rate was under 50, thereby assuming that i had come close to recovering from yesterday's run and that there was more than half a chance that fever was gone.

then somehow after i was up at 6am i fell back asleep and lost an hour of early morning, but the heart rate was 47 and that was good enough to throw extra sun block on and head out. and it was a very pretty morning. the british must be delirious with this streak of good weather. about 62 degrees and sun going in and out behind the few clouds. i was late enough that the world was up now and cars were about and a dog walker and even an occasional runner went by in one direction or another.

i headed up binsey lane towards the church, deciding i would stop each two miles for the first hour and stretch for a minute and get some of the tightness out. the right leg is slowly recovering from the usa visit where it always gets worse and the left leg has been tighter than normal as it takes the brunt of the work when the right leg is not good. ran north slowly towards the church and through the village. the new herd of cows was out and i actually scared one of them when i came around the corner and the cow jumped. funny. ran up to the church and then back to the white rail bridge and stopped to stretch a bit. was tight but knew it would loosen up after another stop. came all the way down binsey back towards the driving range and at botley road i turned back north towards port meadow.

stopped this time at binsey village to stretch at the port meadow gate and it was getting looser and that was good. then headed back to the church one more time to make sure i was ok. heading back across port meadow lane i started to suddenly feel very tired. had about 5-6 miles in now and knew i wanted to go at least 12 so the choice quickly became go on or stop and try again tomorrow. maybe yesterday's 10-11 miles was a lot after the fever. decided to take a two minute walk and see how i felt and then decide.

two minutes later i felt a little better. clearly the air was full of pollen and different fragrances and i thought i could just slow down a bit and go on. so down the river i went and then cut over to the loop around fiddler's island. cows were sharing the path this morning and i mooed my way by them as they scattered at the strange sound. good to know i don 't actually sound like a cow yet. at the end of the loop i ran up the short hill to the canal and headed north. caught a break here as i ran into two women training for a long hike in america, one a law student and one a biological engineer student i believe.

we went north together for awhile and reached the wolvercote lock where they were getting off in search of a place to have lunch, but they decided to try the burgess nature park loop first and then head back to the pub. i got off with them and headed over to what used to be the wolvercote post office store to get some water while they headed over to the reserve park. of course the p.o. was now closed but the store was still open and i got a drink there and then headed back towards the river trail. was somewhere around 11 miles now and feeling ok. not really fresh, but not bad and able to go on.

went past the trout pub and then south on the thames trail past godstow lock. cows were on the trail here too and much more stubborn cows they were so i walked around them rather than continue to get them to move over. they didn't recognize my mooing at all. down the thames i went. the temps were climbing slowly towards 68 but not too bad and the sun drifted in and out behind the clouds keeping the UV exposure somewhat to a minimum.

ran all the way down to the rainbow bridge and did a quick stretch and then south on the trail and then over the port meadow bridge back towards the canal. cut north on the path towards burgess park and then ran a loop in the park myself. this is such a pretty place and so quiet that all you hear are the birds and the occasional overhead airplane. off in the distance were the wytham woods shining in the sunlight next to some really green fields. ran the big outside loop and one cut across loop for a little hillier run and saw nobody at all. there could have been many other runners but the way the park is you can see nobody for a long time no matter how many others may be in here.

then i headed south on the old horse trail and back to the canal and ran south along the canal until the railroad bridge. cut off the canal at this point and ran past snake park and rewley abbey and over to the train station. went across the botley road bridge and ran back towards home finally. only half a mile from here and i stopped at the grocery store to get some things and a paper and walked and jogged home with the two bags bouncing. somewhere between 17 and 20 miles but more probably
18+. not fast but good enough. would have been 23 miles once and i have run 100+ marathons faster than this, but considering the run yesterday i was ok with it. hard to believe that i could feel like i did at 6 miles and get this in. next up is 4 hours, but not tomorrow.

now to see if i can get my phone fixed and do some laundry. no golf practice today.