#328: Night Run

What a beautiful evening for a run!

4.43 miles
1:05:04
61 degrees and light rain
Started at 8:52 PM

I put my run off because I had an audition in the afternoon and was afraid I would end up limping through it. When I finally got up the gumption, it was almost dark. I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I'm glad I did.

The Legends were playing as I ran around the ballpark. I love the sound of a baseball game. Of all sports, baseball is the one that suffers the most on television. There is just no way you can watch baseball on TV and have any real sense of what the game looks and feels like. It's too big. On my third mile, as I rounded the scoreboard in center field, I heard a loud crack and a cheer. I looked up and saw a long, looping fly ball floating through the rain along the left field line. It fell well short of the wall, so I didn't get a chance at it, but it was so graceful. There is such beautiful geometry to baseball. The rain, the night sky, the lights: all these things just enhance it for me. And there's nothing as motivating for a runner as several thousand cheering fans. Even if they are cheering for somebody else.

I ran a little farther than I intended, but felt strong at the finish. This has been a light week, a recovery week. I've run relatively short distances and gone very slowly. Galloway suggests putting one of these light weeks in every four weeks to give your body time to recover and adjust to the things it's learning to do. I'm looking forward to finding out just how much it has learned.

I have two 5K runs scheduled for the next two weekends. The first is Running 4 the Sole, this fantastic event being organized by a Lexington 5th grader. It is a fun run around Coldstream park and the registration fee is one pair of used shoes. After the race, the shoes will be sent to kids who can't afford them. I'm really looking forward to it.

The second race is the Legends Legacy Loop for LexArts. This one covers some of my favorite places to run. It starts at the ballpark (which means I can walk to the starting line from my front porch.) and loops through the Legacy trail. It benefits LexArts, the Lexington arts council. Since there's a grant pending with them to produce a project I'm working on, I figure it's good karma to trot along for them. I just hope the person who designs the tee shirt does a better job than the one who came up with this cheesy, handlebar mustache logo...

After that, I'll start stretching out my distances toward July 4th's 10K. I was thinking about it during my run tonight. I don't know which is more amazing to me: the fact that I'm seriously contemplating running in a 6.2 mile road race, or the fact that I'm doing it while running almost 4 1/2 miles in the rain. Both are miracles, as far as I'm concerned.

Peace,
Pennsy