None of the miles I ran this week were in South Carolina. Even so, some of them were hot and humid AF. 9 of them were in the rain, which was more fun than maybe it sounds.
I was traveling this week, so I spent a few days in Ocean City, MD and a few days in Pittsburgh, PA. I really like to run when I’m in new places. Pittsburgh is not a new place–I grew up here, mostly–but I’d never visited Ocean City before, and I’d never run on a boardwalk before.
I didn’t like the boardwalk as much as I thought I might. Part of this was because it was crowded with lots of walkers and people on bikes and bike-like vehicles that had multiple rows of seating and were wide enough for 2 or 3 people to sit side by side. Part of this was exposure–there was no shade on the boardwalk. At all. Which meant that even with the breeze, it was hot. Part of this was the smooth surface of the boards themselves, which often felt like they might need another nail or two to stay in place. The boards weren’t slippery, but they sort of seemed like they might be. But The ocean makes up for a multitude of minor complaints. Or, as I like to say, water makes everything better.
Sometimes that water is the ocean. Sometimes it’s a lake (Hi North Park!). Sometimes, less commonly so, it’s from the sky. Thursday was rainy. That meant I was even more soggy than usual. And it meant no music or audiobooks, since I left the waterproof iPod in Spartanburg. So the only sounds I heard were the squishing of my shoes. And by the time I had finished my run, they were *really* squishy. Two more trips to North Park were more dry and more crowded, especially on Saturday morning.
I’m kind of proud of myself for venturing off the beaten path, or rather onto a different beaten path on Sunday for my long run (I tend to be a creature of habit when it comes to my running routes). I decided to go to Millville and run the Riverfront trail, which would take me along the Monongahela (I think) river past PNC park and Heinz field and provide me with some really great views of downtown Pittsburgh, Point State Park, and the Duquesne Incline. It also gave me less spectacular views of the old jail. But flat and pretty much a straight out and back, so a really nice alternative to the Lake loop.
M: 8
T: 7 w/ 6 strides
W: Off
R: 9 w/ 6 strides
F: 6.5
S: 6.5
S: 11. Feeling it in the knees and left hip. Not sure what that’s about but I am looking forward to getting back to yoga next week. Was okay on Monday.
116 Days until Richmond.
[Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user Monceau]
