Girl In Motion

Why High Five?  Because for the second time ever on a run, a runner I didn’t know at all gave me a high five!  But let’s go to the beginning…

I mentioned in yesterday’s entry that today’s 12 would partly be spent around Lemon Hill for a couple easy hill loops.   However, after several comments to that post referring to the Philly marathon and the accompanying hill at Lansdowne, it seemed apropos to revisit that area today.  After all, I had only been on it once since the Philly Half and that was at the beginning of marathon training, way back in June, so I was anxious to see if it was still as big as it appeared in my mind.

Today’s accessories included one handheld, gel flask with 2 gels and water to the top (first time filled to the brim) and sunglasses.  I wanted to test the flask filled completely since that’s how it’ll be marathon day and since the waistbands in my shorts are small-width elastic, I knew there’d be some bouncing.   Didn’t take long to figure out that by safety pinning both top corners of the flask holder to my waistband, it would immobilize it perfectly.  And with that, the flask situation is now officially 100% worked out.

Out the door and on to Landsdowne.  So yeah, there’s the hill I remembered, but it’s only 1/4 of a mile so nothing as daunting as my self-proclaimed Smile Hill.   Went up the thing, messed around in the concourse area (part of the marathon course), took a couple more smaller hills, then as I was backtracking to take another swipe at the hill, this huge burly running man passes me with a big ole smile and says “How you doing today?” and held out his hand for a high-five.  What could I do but give him a matching grin, say “Great! How’re you?” and slap that palm!

He got the raw end of the deal as my palm was gross and sweaty and his was quite nice, but I’ll tell you, that grin didn’t leave me for miles.   Funny how some nice people are so brave with their happiness, it’s a beautiful thing.

After that I messed around with the hill and the surrounding area some more, than got back on West River Drive to continue the loop and finished out my 12.  Because I spent extra time around the concourse area, I ended up getting to 12 while still 1.25 miles from home.  Ordinarily I would have kept running anyway but Sunday is going to be 22, so I was like, “screw it!, it’ll be nice to walk home” and I did.

Speaking of Sunday, of course as soon as I publicize what I’m going to do, I change my mind and the route for Sunday’s run is no exception.  I was going to do it on the trail, but that’s a hard run, lots of ups downs and gravel, but the real deciding factor is that it’d be a two-handhelds + gel flask run.  I’m ok with taking the 2 handhelds, but not if I’m also taking a gel flask - that’s just a little too much extra weight and plastic accoutrements to sit well with me.

So the new decision is to do my regular loop forward and back again and then, as I’m nearing home, do a couple trips up and down Smile Hill.  After all, that’ll mimic the race better because there are a couple hills towards the end and also, I’ll just need one handheld and the gel flask.  Besides, a 22 is enough of a workout on it’s own, I don’t need to add the difficulty of a trail in there, too.

And that is it for Friday.  We’re going with our friends Lara and Jeff to some kooky bike race today near Allentown at the Velodrome.  It’s a Madison which I’ve never seen before and sounds crazy cool.  Basically, they fling each other forward while bicycling madly.  Should be a blast, not to mention lots of good looking cycle boys because that goes with the territory.

So have a fine Friday, some strong runs and I’ll be chatting with you all later.

Tags: hills

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.