Running Bliss And Brownee

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 · Mike Davis

Monday, January 30, 2012

I sarcastically posted on Facebook that I would be off for running bliss in 59 minutes. It turned out that I didn’t get myself out the door for until nearly 2 hours later. Kathy and I took the day off and I pretty much laid around all afternoon waiting for the wind to die down and the motivation to go up! Well, the wind died down slightly and the motivation, well the lack of kind of staid steady. I could have sat in front of our gas fireplace for the evening and been pretty content. Not really, my contentment would have turned to guilt and all enjoyment would have disappeared.

Kathy was running in Portsmouth so I was on my own and today I needed a partner. Finally I got myself out the door and in my shoes. Of course my neighbor’s old brown lab was outside and instantly started barking when it saw me, so I walked to see him. Appropriately named Brownee, he’s kind of my adopted dog, and I always enjoy playing fetch with him. We did that for a few minutes and I had to let Brownee know that I was only stalling and must get going. I would love to have taken him with me, but Brownee boy is a bit old and chubby. He would probably get about a half mile and lay down. We hugged and I was on my way.

Today was to be 7 miles and I was determined to go really easy. That proved to be no problem as I was still recovering from the run from hell on Saturday! Despite my not so positive attitude, my first mile felt great! I continue to work on smoothing out my running gate, particularly my foot lift and strike and that first mile felt exactly like I wanted. I think my first mile was 9:32 and that was right on, so hmm! My second mile continued too much like the first, I felt like I was getting some good lift and striking at mid-foot. Before I could give it much thought I was going by Dover High school and nearly 3 miles down. The back side of this particular run is more uphill so I knew it would get tougher. I had to add on a new street to make sure that my run would get me to 7 miles. After some zigzagging I was on 4th St and headed home. This time I ran by a barking Brownee but had to say “hi” on the run. Mile 7 came right in front of my house, but I continued up the hill to the end of our cul-de-sac and finished there. I was so happy that I almost ruined it by doing a cartwheel. Okay, no cartwheel, just a little pat on the back.

I think God knows when I need to have a good run because lord knows I needed one! The ups and downs training for a marathon roll on…

See you tomorrow!

mike