Thursday September 21 I ran a new 4 mile course this morning that I layed out through the streets near my house and through the neighborhoods that I grew up in. I expected to do the standard walk run scheme trying to stretch out the runs as long as I could. My first landmark was to get past my High School (.3 miles) and I passed that with ease. I next set my sights on 76th street (.8 miles) which I have driven down thousands of times but I had not crossed the intersection on foot since 1977 when walking to High School. I still was feeling good and I just kept putting one foot in front of another and focused on keeping my breathing calm. Pretty soon I had run the first long stretch of the course (1.39 miles) and I still felt good. As I ran the 3 blocks to take the turn back home I passed the Library that I did my homework at as a kid, my Grade School and the Local Fire Department that I had also visited in my youth. When I made the turn back home I kept blocking out new landmarks that I had not seen on foot in over 20 years. I passed old friends houses the park I played tackle football in and a few areas I had biked through but had never been to on foot. Pretty soon I was at the 2.5 mile mark and still running. I thought to myself you cant quit now even though most of the last stretch was up hill. I had to get past that mystical 5K mark that has eluded me since I started running back in May. I did it, I was by my house which I was pretty sure was at the 3 mile mark and I still had more in the tank. So I pushed on past a few bars that I had staggered home from on a regular basis just 4 short years ago (1 bar more recently than that) and I still was running. Now I had to make it just 2 hilly blocks and 3 more down hill. When I hit the last block I was just amazed I thought to myself " you did it you actually ran 4 miles" After the first day running the 4 miles on the track I wondered if I would be able to do this by year end and I did it. Then I looked at the watch 48:49 and I said to myself "you have to start working on bringing that time down". You would think you would take a moment to enjoy what you had just accomplished but I guess that is just not the way we are wired.
Milestone Run "at least for Me"
Linear Mode
