Friday, October 10, 2014

A return to the darkness

Enlightening
Today's run (street): 3.4 miles

In my last post, I mentioned a Runner's World web post that was similar to one that I wrote a couple of years ago. The subject matter, gender equality in racing, was provocative enough to prompt a reader to leave a long, thoughtful comment. The funny thing about that is the reader left it on She Is Out Running's (SIOR) blog.

This was no accident. The commenter said that he views SIOR, The Petite Pacer (TPP) and this blog as a set. I now pronounce us the United Blogs of Long Island! Feel free to leave comments for any of us anywhere. We'll figure it out.

Today is Friday and that means working from home and finally being able to run outside. This morning I decided to get in gear early (pun intended :) and go out for my run. This wasn't a 4:00 AM adventure, actually closer to 6:30, but still dark outside. I put on my reflective vest and started my headlamp. It's hard to tell how strong the beam is until you are outside, but since I haven't used it in almost a year I didn't expect too much illumination.

Stepping outside in the darkness brought back a lot of memories of when this was a daily occurrence. I acquired a signal quickly on my Garmin and off I went. The neighborhood was still quiet except for the town recycling trucks that are driven by maniacs. I always try to avoid the streets along their route. If I can't, I'll stick to the sidewalks.

The batteries in the headlamp will need to be replaced as the light was fairly weak. There was plenty of light from the full moon, so the lamp served mostly as a way to make me more visible to cars. A little before 7:00 AM, I could see the sun starting to rise. By then, the middle school buses were on the road, the streets began to fill with cars and I was done with my run.

Even though some elements of this morning's run were similar to my 4:00 AM running days, today had a different feel. Back then, everything was timed to the split second and I ran the same route every day at around the same pace (9 min/mile). A minute's slip could impact my whole morning routine that included making an early train. I only needed to commute as far as my home office after today's workout.

Tomorrow morning is supposed to be rainy, so I'm not sure what I'll do. Sunday's weather looks better and SIOR, TPP and I are planning to get out for a few miles. It will be a momentous occasion for the United Blogs of LI.

10 comments:

  1. Don't forget TPP is coming, too! This is so funny because I was going to comment on my thread that we were the United Blogs of Someplace. I just couldn't think of a good place. Long Island, of course. I'd prefer the United Blogs of SLC or HI or IT, but I will have to settle for now.

    I saw a woman running around town one evening wearing flashing lights from head to hip. She looked like an adorable Christmas tree running.

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    Replies
    1. TPP is coming too!! Awesome! I thought she wasn't able to make it. I'll correct it in my post.

      My light flashes as well. In fact, my other headlamp flashes white and red light. I'll have to try that sometime.

      Salt Lake City???

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    2. Except for the whole religious aspect.

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    3. Is it the multiple spouses or the fact that they don't allow caffeinated drinks?

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    4. Are you kidding?! One spouse is too many! Who the heck wants more than that? :O

      Caffeine free is good.

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    5. Hmm, perhaps you'll share more details on your non-religious Morman interests tomorrow?

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