Fantastic, amazing run!!

With relief, I post this entry. I should have known better than to fret over the last run, which was so very very bad. I should have known that all things achieve balance and that I was due a great run. And was this one ever!

I didn't run in the morning, preferring the soft comfortableness of another hour's sleep in my fresh sheets and pleasantly cool bedroom. I had a good morning putting together a light plot for the Fringe Festival and a decent afternoon drafting at Insight. Woo-hoo!

On the train home, I hunted through my iPod for THOSE songs -- you know the ones: they set your feet tapping and conjur images of pounding, rhythmic activity. The songs that evoke images of hyper-focused athletes toeing the start line as the rising sun breaks the grey dawn into a salmon-and-black chiaroscuro. The bass lines and percussion rhythms that get your nerves twitching, your legs already pumping in time, in your mind's eye. I have a list of songs specifically to help motivate me to run, but this time I didn't need the songs to want to run after work, they just got me all the more hyped up.

The second I got home, I chugged a large shot of power-snot, gulped down eight ounces or so of water and started getting ready for the run. I even did the foam roller before running this time! I pulled my running clothes out of the clean-laundry pile and slipped them on - after a day in a heavy t-shirt and khakis, the running clothes felt like they were made of air. I slipped on my running shoes and stepped out the door.

And stopped.

It was raining -- or beginning to, at any rate. Eyes narrowing in determination, I contemplated the upcoming run only for a moment, then shrugged it off. If it was going to rain, it was going to rain; nothing I could do about it. And I was NOT going to put off this run! I was PUMPED.

I've never run in the rain before - not voluntarily. It rained in the last half of the Scotland 10K, but that was what it was. Now though, I was actually starting out in the rain. Ten steps out, I zipped past my neighbor returning home; I wondered if he thought I'm crazy?

I started out at a good pace - a REALLY good pace! It was about the pace I pushed in the last 5K and IT. FELT. GREAT! I was having to lean in as I rounded corners. That's a new one! The light rain continued unabated as I sped into Carroll Gardens. Turning away from the Smith-9th subway station and heading up Smith street, I really put the pedal to the metal, a good solid gear higher and just ran right up the street. I concentrated on keeping my feet more-or-less in a line, instead of a zig-zag, and pumping my arms, and lifting my heels. Before I knew it, I was at 2nd place. I blipped over to 1st and turned left, toward the BQE. I slowed down to my starting-out pace for a small stretch, then picked it up again for five or six blocks 'til I got to the pedestrian overpass at the BQE.

Up-and-over, down and around, then out into Redhook. I took several turns away from Hamilton so that I wouldn't return home too soon. I really extended this normally 3-mile route; probably came close to four miles, at least. I kept pounding away, refusing to slow down to below 5K pace. After crossing several busy streets and Ft. Hamilton, I pounded up and over the Gowanus and then notched it up for a third and final push, which I kept up 'til I hit the mailbox at the corner of my block, where I customarily slow to a walk to cool down before I get to my apartment.

I remember glancing at the clock before my stretching and foam rolling and it had said 8:11. After some post-run stretching and admiring my neighbor's skill with his RC car on the rain-slick streets (yep, still raining!), I headed inside for a shower. The clock read 8:57. WTF? Did I enter a time warp, or was I really moving?!? Fantastic!

I feel great; I FELT great. Even with the rising humidity as the rain came down, the temperature was good and I'm getting adapted to the warmer weather FINALLY. My lungs cooperated and even my knees kept their yappy little mouths shut. Just all-in-all, this had to have been the best run I've had in weeks, if not months!

More please!