Mile Stones

I’m riding the positive energy wave of the best 4 months of running I’ve had in a several years.  I’ve realized, just lately, that I ran injured to some degree for the last 2 years.  Never truly giving myself time to heal, before I would twist my ankle again.  The decision to stay off trails has been the most positive decision I could possibly make.  It is truly a joy to just run again.

It was almost Halloween ish

 I ran only my second official 50k last month at Autumn Leaves in Champoeg Park, Oregon.  In fact, my previous 50k PR was my 50k split at PacRim 24 hour a few years ago.  As I approach 50 years old, I know that have very few PR’s left in me and I really wanted a 50k PR under 5 hours.  The weather was pretty miserable, cold, wet and raining but I ran very consistent splits the whole day and finished in 4:52:45.  I sometimes measure success on long runs by the “dips”.  How many times my performance dips and how long they last is usually the difference between a good long race and a bad one.  I really only had one dip at Autumn Leaves, around mile 21, I was starting to feel some fatigue and the wind and rain picked up to the worst of the day.  I spent about a mile in the doldrums but got my shit back together pretty quickly and ran a very solid last 9 miles.  I’ve had so many race disappointments lately that it felt really good to have a solid performance like this.   

When I feel good, I plan, a lot!  But I’ve still got some unfinished business in 2012.  I have a 4 year streak of at least 2,000 miles in the year, but I’ve got my work cut out for me to make it a 5th.  If I reach 2,000 miles this year it will also put me over 17,700 which just happens to be the the circumference of the earth at the 45th parallel, which is a silly stat, since using that method and logic, you could run all the way around the world in one day if you were near enough to a pole.  But, I’m kinda fascinated by the whole 45th parallel thing anyway, more on that later.

2,300 miles in 2013 will get me to 20,000, which will make the next big mile stone 24,901, once around the Earth.