Running the Milton Ames

OK, if we're going to do this, it's time to get serious. Run Coach Pro (yes, there's an app for this) tells me that if Friday is going to be my weekly long run day, then today, t-minus 20 weeks before race training, I should be doing 1 hour and 10 minutes of running. The fact that the wind is gusting up to 40 mph makes no difference. The sun is out. Spring feels possible. We're on the road running the Milton Ames circuit.

What's the Milton Ames circuit? Franktown to Hare Valley on Bayside Rd. Milton Ames Rd (hence the name) from end to end. Left on Wardtown back to Franktown with a detour through the Franktown Cemetery, where my perverse brain starts reciting the part of the Apostle's Creed about Jesus' return to judge the quick and the dead. Wind was only an issue on Milton Ames. It actually helped me on the homestretch.

The particulars?
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 1 hr 8 min
The verdict: slow but steady gets me to Richmond

What Have I Done?!

I wake up to an email telling me I have paid $70 to enter the Richmond Marathon. Wait, I really did that last night?

My race nickname, which they will apparently print on my number, is Shorebird 1.

Running to Richmond

Late on a Thursday night I make the decision - I will register for the Richmond (VA) Marathon, November 11, 2011. It's all part of a challenge to Virginia United Methodist clergy made by one of our running-minded District Superintendents, Steve Jones. I'm a swimmer, not a runner. (And a lover, not a fighter, btw). But I have tasted the runner's high a couple of times. And the flat Eastern Shore is a great place to run. So here begins the log of the journey.