It's Woolly Bear Time Again

And we had frost yesterday too, so it must definitely be fall here in Ohio. Not a hard killing frost, just enough to highlight the grass in the green space in front of our house. But I did delay my run until the late morning because of it. I really didn't want to go out and freeze for a couple hours. And because I delayed my run, I decided to drive up to the Metroparks to run instead of running around town.

I like parking in Strongsville, just off Pearl. It's easy to get to from the highway, and it has an outhouse! In the past I've parked there, run through Berea, down into the Rocky River Valley. Yesterday I decided to take a different route, heading up the Big Creek Parkway to the picnic area at Snow Rd. I used to ride my bike along there tons in high school, but haven't been up that way in many years. Nothing has changed. The trees may be a little bigger and the shrubs a little fuller, but it's still basically the same as it was 15 years ago. The traffic light patterns are still ridiculous, refusing to give you a "walk" sign, forcing you to cross when everyone making a left hand turn is done. People carelessly walking their dogs. People walking on the left hand side of the path. I could go on.

But I won't. What I will go on about is the run. I did 14.5 miles in 1:53. I really wasn't planning on going too hard, what with the marathon two weeks away and all. I wanted to be out no longer than 2:30 so I planned to run for 1:15 then turn around. I ended up reaching my desired turn around point in less than an hour. I thought that was fine and decided to go for a negative split on the way back. A negative split in this case is running back to the car faster than I did leaving it. I don't have my splits in front of me right now, but I negative split the run by a couple minutes. I felt good. A little tight at points, but good. It was chilly, about mid 50's, but the course is heavily wooded, so I was in and out of sun throughout the run. There weren't too many people out, as the Towpath Marathon was yesterday. I was pleased that I was able to push it, but not too much as to cause an injury.

Columbus is 13 days out and I think I'm in a good spot. I've done the long runs. I've done the short runs. I've done the hard runs. Now, I'm just planning some shorter, easier runs as I taper. I'm not sore today, just a little tight. I do have a bit of a sore throat. Better this week than next week, though. I'll be at the track tomorrow, but I'm not planning on pushing anything at all.

Happy Fall everyone! The storm windows are now in. The furnace has a clean filter and has been coming on at night. And 100,000 people joined Dick Goddard in Vermilion yesterday for the Woolly Bear Festival. Too many people for my liking. That's why I was running.

Mr. P