A Nice Day To Run

Once again another instance of one area getting bad storms with heavy rain while others completely missed out.  Storms rolled through Allentown this afternoon with strong winds, heavy rain and small hail.  I didn't notice.  Mainly because it didn't do anything where I was at as illustrated by these estimated storm totals from ABC Philadelphia.

 

A second bout of rain came through later in the afternoon while the sun was completely out.  I did my best to capture some images and of course look for a picturesque rainbow.  I'd go on, but I have a bed time.

You can see the rain drops on this one.

Now to the other story.

A few weeks ago I noticed a race coming up that takes place at the zoo.  It's basically the same course I use when I want to get in a trail run.  Not very technical (in my opinion) but challenging nonetheless with various elevation changes over a relatively small amount of miles.  Normally I would have been in but I thought better of it.  I already signed up for a 15k the week after and didn't want to do two trails back to back.  So I mentioned the race to a co-worker and said I would not be taking part.

Fast forward to Friday.  I figured I would get in a run on Saturday and then play my hockey game on Sunday.  Nothing too hard on the legs so I would be ready to go for the following weekend.  Towards the end of the day the same co-worker who I told I would not be doing the race at the zoo asked me if I was doing it.  I told him we already had this conversation.  I wanted to save my legs for the other race.  Then I thought, why not do it.  In the span of about 10 seconds I went from not thinking about it to strongly considering showing up.  After all I clearly did not sign up which would mean I would have to register the day of, something I never do. 

I decided not to run Saturday which was the slow build up to what I had already started to plan for.  I was going to the zoo run.  I had just the right amount of beer Saturday night before the 5 am wake up call on Sunday.  When I woke up I felt good.  The run was a go.

I wasn't racing though I probably started too far back.  I've run there many times before so I know what to expect.  I saved energy for the hills and only walked near the end on the steepest sections.  I also considered I was probably one of the few who had a hockey game to get to later and going all out wasn't necessary.  I still easily beat my quickest time.  Not only that I wasn't tired at the end and my legs felt fine.

The disclaimer on the site says the average runner will finish between 1 1/2 and 2 hours.  I finished in 1 hour and 29 minutes.  And that's how you go from not having any interest in doing the race to doing one of the harder trail races in the area.

       

  This guy agrees.