Spring Training

It is St. Patrick’s Day.  Opening day of the 2013 Major League Baseball season is two weeks away, the same day as the RMRR’s Spring Marathon Training Series 20 mile race.  The Easter Bunny will be hopping the next day.  The azaleas are in bloom at Augusta National.  The third Monday in April, Patriots’ Day, is a month away and the Boston Athletic Association is in full-on marathon readiness mode.

Cherry Creek State Park was full of activity this Saturday morning.  Runners and bikers deftly avoided one another the paths.  The report of rifles could be heard from the shooting range.  The air was calm and there was the buzz from the radio controlled airplanes at the airfield.  Wildlife of all sorts, real and imagined, could be seen.  A coyote bolted after its prey.  Deer were sunning themselves in the fields by the road. 

On the lake crew shells bobbed in the swells.  The air and water temperatures were about the same, 40 degrees.  It reminded me of the first on-the-water workouts we had on the Erie Canal.  The launches would power back and forth on the river to break up the ice.  With almost every stroke, we would hit a chunk of ice, sometimes missing water completely.  That first spring my hands ached from the cold, then never again.  I can only imagine what nerve damage I did to my hands.

Friday was unseasonably warm with temperatures around 70 degrees.  That was enough of an invitation for about 100 campers in RVs to come and hook up for the night.  But the low of Friday turned into the high of Saturday, which made for a chilly wake up.

We were commenting on the few long runs we’ve put in so far this year.  By this time last year I had logged eight runs of 20+ miles.  This was my third 20+ miler of the year.  I ended up running 21.5 miles at an average pace of 7:14 / mile.  If I could hold that pace, it would yield a 3:09:25 marathon, which I would be delighted with.  My legs were sore like I'd run a marathon on Sunday and I needed to rest.  I have two months to get ready for the Colfax Marathon and I need more long runs.