Running for Charles and Jerry........

Last week was ok for the most part and it has been wonderful to run with old friends and over hills (well maybe those hills aren't so wonderful).  For the most part, it was cool in Atlanta for the week and any runs in the morning were done in 35-40F weather.  Now I haven't run in temps that warm yet in Ohio, but it is still cold enough for tights or capris, a long sleeve shirt and even a vest for a couple of them (because of the wind).  Yesterday it was cold enough that two of my fingers on my left hand were "white" from being cold and I had to wear gloves.  This after it had been warm and humid the day before (60F and 94%) when I ran two women through the Atlanta Woman's 5K to both run PRs and the day before that when I ran an awful long run (which was so hilly that I cursed every minute and I'm sure I was dehydrated from the start).  That long run took away any confidence that I had going into April 21st and I need to regain my composure after that one.  We all have bad runs, but this one was one of the epitomes of bad.  Wonder if I should have stopped at 9 miles when I still felt ok, but nope, I ran 11 more.  I have had cycles like this before, but it always throws one for a loop.  The rest of the weeks runs were pretty good, so I can probably just write it off to lots of hills on the previous Sunday even if I really thought I had recovered fine.

The highlight of the long run was that I got to share the agony with running buddies Joe and Laurie.  Joe and I ran our long runs together for several years in Atlanta and it was a regular Friday morning occurence.  Jody joined us often along with the "rabbit" (my good friend, Sally Love) and others (including Karla) in the past.  Joe and I kind of started the "Riverside Runners" by using that weekly meeting and combining it with our love of coaching/mentoring and dragging others from various training groups that we helped with into the fold. Of course, those Riverside Runners wouldn't be anywhere without us (Joe & I), right?  Laurie came to my last Peachtree training session and I love to see how she has absolutely embraced running doing ultras and trail runs and the like.  It also helps that she is funny and loves Dropkick Murphy and the Red Sox as much as I.

Saturday morning, I did have the pleasure of once again running the Atlanta Womens 5k and as mentioned above, my love of coaching came to good use when I was able to drag Mary Katherine through a 5K PR on what is a tough course.  It was almost 60F and very humid at the race start, but lucky for us it did not rain even though it was pouring during my 45 min drive down to beautiful Candler Park.  Although only 3.1 miles, the race does highlight an older, beautiful part of the city, and the commaraderie is tremendous.  Many of the women participating have never gotten off the couch until this race and many of them will now stick with it and go on to maintain that healthy lifestyle.  After the run, we once again had a great breakfast orchestrated by the Riverside Runner social director, Debbie and it was yum!

Debbie, Cristal, and I then paid a visit to Jerry on Saturday afternoon which was very hard. He has basically gone from running 6 wks ago to needing assistance to be lifted into a wheelchair.  It was hard, but he is still Jerry. He still joked and laughed like Jerry, but it is a difficult situation.  I lost it on my drive back to my friends as it just doesn't seem fair.  Definitely not sure why bad things happen to good people.  

In all likelihood, I will never see Jerry again which has made it hard to write about our visit and even harder to try to see Jerry in my mind with his wry smile.  Thinking about him brings tears to my eyes and then reading an article on facebook about former Bills QB, Jim Kelly, who is also battling cancer didn't help either.

Sunday morning's enjoyable run with many members of the Riverside group helped my mood in spite of the cold temps and the nasty wind.

Recap of the week that was:

Mon - Day off, massage.  Back hurt more after the massage than before.

Tue - Easy 5 mile Recovery run

Wed - 6 miles in cold (37F) and wind.  Not the weather I expected in Atlanta

Thu - 20.5 miles.  Started at 10 am ran an extremely hilly course that started and ended with 8.5 miles on a trail.  Weather at the start was in the mid-50s but when we finished 3+ hrs later it was in the 70s.  Dehydrated and discouraged.  Thought of Charles and Jerry and soldiered on.

Fri - Easy 3 miles shakeout run

Sat - Atlanta Woman's 5K - didn't race but did run two women from the training group I ran with last week through their first sub 30 5Ks.  Final time: 26:55.  Went to visit with Jerry.

Sun - 11 mile Fast Finish long run.  Ran first 5 with the group at 10:30 pace and then did the last 6 with Jody at 8:38 pace. Better run to dedicate to Charles.

WTD: 48.6 miles

Not all was lost as I did get accepted to the NYC marathon in November and I am so looking forward to that.  Outside of Boston, NYC is probably my next most favorite marathon.  The city is electric on that morning and that run up 1st Avenue is 2nd to (almost) none.  

For now, 21 more days.................