Day 2: Against the Wind

I woke up today and felt better than I did yesterday. I decided to put on the watch and go for a run in some daylight. As soon as my feet touched the asphalt I realized that the conditions for this run were going to a lot different. It was 36 degree out like it was last night, but today there were steady winds of 20mph and gusts that felt like they were at least 35mph. This put the wind chill somewhere in the mid 20's. For the first 2 miles, I ran into a head wind and due to my exercise induced asthma, I was quite literally sucking wind. In addition to this, there were some light snow flurries. At the 2 mile mark I decided to actually look at my watch to gauge how the run was going. 13:31 at 2 into a head wind and with some rolling hills. I was reliving a common mistake that I've been making for the decade + that I've been running. I was going out too hard for an easy run.

Day 2 in the books

The next mile began with a long stretch of down hill and level terrain. I decided I needed to slow it down because I knew I pay for it later in the run. All throughout this next mile I felt a strong cross wind that was coming close to pushing me off the sidewalk. I then turned into a small wooded area by Lake Caroline. Good trails are few and far between by my house, but I knew there was a stretch of about a half mile where I'd be protected from the wind and it would put me out exactly one mile from my house. It's been a while since I've run back there and the woods had the tell tale signs that they'd been taken over by underage drinkers. I saw at least 3 empty 30's of Natty Light and one Natty Ice. Then I came upon the remnants of a bon fire filled with about 50 empty beer cans. I continued on the trail and came out to an opening by the lake. I was not alone when I got there. In the field were about 250 Canadian Geese that had decided to occupy the path up to the road. I then had a flashback to a run I had in college...

It was a cold winter morning and I getting ready for an indoor track workout at Lawrenceville Prep. I went outside to warm up with the rest of the Rider mid distance runners on the high school golf course. We were at the turnaround point when we looked out to the next field over. The harvested corn field was literally covered with geese. My conservative estimate is 750-1000 of them. We all immediately get the same idea... We are going to run into the field flapping our arms and scare them. When we ran out there, they immediately took off. It sounded like a helicopter hovering above us. It was amazing and something I will always remember whenever I see a field of geese.

Back to the run... I ran through this significantly smaller flock waving my arms in the same manner and they all took off and my path the the road was clear. I got to the road with a smile on my face reminiscing on the previously mentioned story. I got to the road, exactly one mile from my house, and looked at my watch and it read 24:32. For the first time all run, I had the wind to my back. I continued with the same effort as the rest of the run, but subconsciously I was probably picking it up slightly due to knowing I was in the last mile of the run. There was a slight uphill for the rest of the run, but that didn't bother me. I've run this stretch of road countless times. I get to my house and stop my watch. 30:54 for 4.5 miles. 6:52 per mile with a 6:22 last mile. I felt pretty strong after I got into the swing of things. The true test will be when I wake up tomorrow. I think I may feel some soreness, but that's to be expected in these beginning stages of the journey.