13 Miles

Day 83.

Wow! We are getting close. I ran a fast four miler today, getting ready for Saturday’s 10 miler. I ran faster today than I have yet, doing the four miles in 37:09, or about 9:17 per mile. I’m sure I can’t keep that pace much longer than four miles, but I’m glad I got that far with it. I felt like I could have gone farther, but didn’t have much time.

When it comes to the education system, I get angry when hearing about students being taught for the test. Students should be taught what they need, not just what they’ll be tested on. It is unfortunate that life experiences and practical uses aren’t as important as a score on a one-time examination on paper.

For some odd reason, though, I’m teaching myself for the test.

When I began this little zig into running, I was given advice about where to run: Vary it up. Don’t run the same route everyday — you’ll get tired of it.

So when I began, I ran different routes. I biked different areas. I ran all over town.

Then I stumbled on the route for the Bill Seymour. No more different routes. Just different directions.

I live about a block off the route, near the middle of the stretch. I can run one direction about three miles and back, I can run the other about four and back. I can run different distances I’ve figured out in either direction. But always on the Bill Seymour path.

Because I’m teaching myself for the test. Other runners may grow tired of this, but I’m liking it. The four miles I ran this morning was so natural down to College Park and back, and didn’t feel like a very long stretch. One long distance going south on the trail to College Park has always felt like a half-marathon in itself, but not so much today. Even with the moon offering the only light on the path I felt comfortable.

The dilemma? What happens if I want to run a different route after the Bill Seymour has come and gone? What if I want to run north? What if I want to run in another town? Will my efforts in training have been wasted, only training for this run? Only learning the answers for this test?

Yeah, I doubt it too. But it does give me another excuse for the future. We’ll see.

NOTE TO MY RUNNING FRIENDS: Remember, I’ll be out at Fonner Park at 7 a.m. Saturday if anyone would like to join me for the ten mile warm-up for next Saturday. We’ll run the route, so you can start cramming in your own studying for the test. I’ll have some questions for you if you show up, mainly this: Do we run this ten miles like we’d run the 13, or do we take it a little easier, or faster or what?

See you there.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 11:21 am and is filed under Training | . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.