Run Brittiania!

So, despite my navel gazing about etiquette yesterday, I’m completely smitten with running in the UK. I had the pleasure this afternoon of finding both a linear park – an abandoned rail line, paved and what we’d call a “Rail-Trail” in the US, and realizing that it was tied into a network of paved pathways that essentially ran through everyone’s backyard. Absolutely amazing network.

Which somewhat explains why I haven’t seen as many runners, on a per capita basis, over here. Back Stateside, we’ve pretty much got no choice but to take our exercise on the road or the sidewalk, so, if there’s a runner in the area, you’ll see them from the car.

The other bit that I’m sure plays a part is that a lot of folks actually walk as a form of transportation. So, they’re generally fitter based on lifestyle, and don’t need to run so much.

Anyway, today’s run was great. I’m becoming a pretty big fan of “overtraining” while on business travel – turning some of the commute time I save into mileage doesn’t seem to hurt. 4.5 miles today, and 5+ yesterday gives me one of my biggest running weeks in a while, and it’s only Tuesday.

In other news, the folks I’m over here visiting took me out to a quite literally ancient pub – there’s been a building on the site since Roman times, and the building we were in dated to Tudor times, which, if I recall, came somewhere in between the Stone Age and Dutch Modern periods in interior design. The pub also featured Real Ale, which was one of my personal goals for this trip. Absolutely fabulous – all of the taste of quality homebrew without the downside of having to deal with two cases of terrible beer when a batch goes wrong.

Great Big British Book of Running

So, I’m looking for a little bit of input from you runners over in the motherland – what exactly is running etiquette in the UK, specifically England? I’m over here for business, and, after surviving the drive out of Heathrow and finding my absolutely wonderful (and that’s not sarcasm, the hotel I’m in is exceptional) hotel, I went for a run today.

The hotel’s in what I guess you’d call a city center, smaller town out in the Cotswalds, and, until I got past the parks, etc, I felt like I may have been out of place running on the sidewalk. It wasn’t exceptionally crowded, and I tried to avoid shops as much as possible, but I still felt like I was invading someone’s space. Am I just overly self-conscious ’cause I don’t want to appear rude in what’s got to be the most polite place I’ve ever been, or are there rules about where it is and isn’t appropriate to sweat like a pig?

Other than feeling kind of akward, which may have been a side effect of my continued disorentation about driving on the wrong side of the road, the run was great. Good sidewalks, predictable drivers, great weather… What’s not to love? The five miles were over too quickly, though I felt every yard of the last mile.

World’s Shortest Marathon

(N.B. – Mark and Jeanne: I’m not avoiding you, I forgot to tell you I was going on Vacation)

Hey, dig this – After a bunch of years of pretty much working and going to see family, we’re on vacation! A whole week up in Stowe, Vermont, with nothing to do but enjoy the mountains, and run, bike, and swim.

Actually, it’s breaking down kind of like this: Missy is doing a TON of running. Well, not a ton, but, as expected, she’s hewing well to the whole marathon training plan. Run faster with less.

The boys and I have been doing a ton of swimming. But by swimming, we mean fooling around in the condo pool. Diving to touch the bottom, playing “Monster”, and soforth. I tried a couple of laps, but jammed my finger touching the wall. Who’da thunk that those lines on the bottom could be so useful?

And I’ve been biking – one time seriously, and a bunch of times with the family on the bike path. Good stuff. Friday, during Missy’s long run, we’ll bike down to the river that runs through town and spend a couple of hours crawling along the river bed looking for trout.

Oh, and I ran a race: Each July 4, there’s a race from Stowe Center up to a bar at noon. 1.7 miles. Missy talked me into running it – I was pretty much just aiming to go out and meander for an hour or so, but sitting at the starting line got the old competitive juices flowing.

The course is up VT 108 from the covered bridge in the village center to Gracie’s Restaurant. It starts off with a decent grade, and then kind of levels off. The initial climb felt good – I started mid-pack in the 100 or so runners, and pretty quickly got to about #25 or so. There was a woman a couple of years older than me who I used to set my pace, right on the edge of really sucking wind but not really being able to recover to a one breath (In and out) every 4 steps sort of pace.

Life was good until she passed me by kind of cutting a corner. Not an illegal move, by any means, but I stayed in the westbound lane, and she cut the corner across the eastbound lane and passed me and accelerated. All was not lost – before the finish, I picked off a guy in a blue shirt who’d gotten up to 200 yards in front of me.

After the race, I decided to try to tack on another couple of miles, but it just didn’t feel right. After about another 1.5 or so, I knocked it off and walked back to the condo. Sprinted up the hill, but slowed when I thought I was going to chunder.

Need to run more…

DC

So, I’m back home after a couple of days down in DC. And man, what a great trip this was – fascinating, good running, and a chance to catch up with an old friend.

The new shoes are good – there’ll be a bit up on Complete Running later this week talking about a great retail experience.

And WOW – I’d forgotten what an elemental experience it is to run in good, solid humidity. I just got out for a couple of miles, and MAN – it was sticky. But sticky in a good way.

Monday night, I caught up with a shipmate. Good food, and we spent the evening walking around the Tidal Basin and the mall. DC is absolutely fabulous – it’s inspirational for me to actually go around and read the monuments, Jefferson’s in particular. It’s a shame how frequently we forget the intellectual underpinnings of our great nation. I envy you DC types, though not for the weather…

Thursday is Terramuggus. I hope i make it – work is busy, and next week is vacation…

links for 2007-06-27

Birthday Meme

Thanks to <a href=”http://www.randomduck.com/2007/06/26/on-may-16/”>RandomDuck

3 Events:

  1. 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.
  2. 1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.
  3. 1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

An interesting omission: Wikipedia has no mention of the 1972 kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics.

2 Births:

  1. 1766 – John Dalton, British chemist and physicist (d. 1844)
  2. 1928 – Robert M. Pirsig, American author (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I claim bonus points for:
1937 РSergio Aragon̩s, Spanish-born illustrator (Creator of Groo, the Wanderer)
1939 – David Allan Coe, American country singer (Writer of the perfect country and western song
1943 – Roger Waters, British musician
1947 – Jane Curtin, American actress (and “ignorant slut”)
1958 – Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian
2006 – Prince Hisahito of Akishino, Japan Imperial Family member

1 Holiday:

Swaziland – Independence Day (from the United Kingdom, 1968)

A hard rain fell

Thursday night. I hadn’t done anything all week, not since running home from the Y on Sunday afternoon, and swimming Tuesday evening. Work was tough – go figure, since I’d been gone for two weeks. Nothing like playing catch up.

The kids were in bed. The wife was working. The evening air was heavy, ripe with the promise of rain. So, I stuffed the iPod in a plastic bag, laced up the Gel Cumulii once more, and set out.

As I headed up and over Cow Hill, there was a little bit of thunder in the air. I considered heading back (And, yes, I should have), but there was something there – a spring in the step that hadn’t been there for a while. So I pressed on, thinking I’d do the quick 5 mile loop on River Road and home.

As I approached the underpass for IH-95, the skies opened up in earnest. Rain fell, the breeze turned into wind, and the dry spaces beneath the trees started getting wet. I thought about resting under the bridge and waiting for the storm to pass, but instead I pressed on, taking High Street towards downtown.

At Star Street, again, I thought about turning back. I hung the left to head down to River Road, and the rain turned to a deluge. My shoes were completely soaked, my t-shirt clinging to me like, well, a wet t-shirt. At river Road, I decided to turn right and loop, in the rain, through downtown.

Downtown, the rain tapered, and then stopped completely. The air took on that brilliant shine that you can only get in the immediate aftermath of a thunderstorm. The thunder continued on out past Fisher’s Island, and the sunset began to break through the clouds.

The run on up River Road towards home was ephemeral, all fireflies and glassy water and unseasonably cool. The more I wished for the moment to stretch on into forever, the more the sun kept on past sunset, darkness rushing through the sky.

As I walked up the final hill towards the house, though, I got the letdown of not hearing Lance or Paula’s congratulations on a good run… And, the tightness in the calves, and the spent feeling inherent in pushing one’s limits.

I stuffed my soaked shoes with newspaper (one of them running tricks you read about but never try). THe next day – dry as bones, and good to go for 5K at lunch with Johnny Klink.