Long Run

Wouldn't you know that the first real rain of the season would come today, long-run day for me as I ramp up for CIM, which seems to be approaching at a rate of speed that would alarm even Einstein, who contended (and proved, after a fashion, I believe) that time doesn't always pass at the same rate--it's a bit like silly putty in its malleability. Anyway, rain it did.

It wasn't raining when I headed out the door around 8:30 am, but it sure was by the time I came back, well over two hours later. Last weekend I ran 12 miles on a hot Saturday and was discouraged by how difficult it was. This week my goal was to do 14--and I ended up doing 15 and not feeling too bad. I added on the extra mile courtesy of my runner friend Mac, whom I encountered out at the Richmond end of the Ohlone Greenway.


He asked me if I'd ever run through the tunnel on the path's extension "over there," and he pointed across busy San Pablo Avenue. At this point I had done some add-ons to the straight route offered by the Greenway (made a detour to the Cougar Field track) and was still at only about 7 miles, so when he said the trail was a mile long, I went for it. It was interesting to see--I'd never known of its existence. It was a bit gritty--no foliage, but some graffiti and some trash to break up the landscape--but its main drawback for me was that it was more like 1.6 miles long than 1.0. Hmmm.


I did get to the end of it, which turned out to be near the Richmond BART station, but I'll need to look at a map before I can tell you where I was when I took this photo. After I took it, I turned around and headed home. By the time I was at mile 11, the rain was shedding the sobriquet "sprinkle," and I was quite wet. I wish I could blame the rain for what happened next, but in fact, I think it was lack of attention on my part (combined with gravity) that made me take a tumble.


Compared to some of the epic falls I've taken in the past (slings! crutches! broken bones!), this one was pretty benign, and I was able to dust myself off and proceed with nothing new going on except a nice little adrenaline boost and--oh yes--a left pinkie joint that suddenly insisted on bending the wrong way. Being the intrepid endurance athlete that I am, I soldiered on, and ran home, only whimpering a little. Dear Z, who isn't a doctor but occasionally plays one in our kitchen, applied a popsicle-stick splint, and I'm now as close as I'm going to get to being good as new.

In other news, and I mention this here mainly because it's going to challenge me to find training time, starting tomorrow I'll be working full-time at my ad-agency job instead of the half-time I've been doing for the past 3+ years. It will mean some cold, dark, early runs--and maybe some noontime runs in SF. I read a quote this morning by elite runner Heidi Westover, who works full-time and still trains at an astoundingly high level. She was talking about sticking to her rigorous schedule: "This is what's going to get you where you want to go,so you're gonna do it." So, to the best of my ability, I'm gonna do it. As I've been saying to myself since I turned 60 (now that was a while ago, Einstein), if not now, then when?