Branching Out

It's Sunday night, my least favorite time of the week. No amount of excellent TV ("The Simpsons" still comes through occasionally, "Family Guy" of course, and "Game of Thrones" and "The Borgias" are two newer favorites) can disguise the fact that the whole work week looms ahead. But this is my running blog, not my TV blog or my dislike of Sunday nights blog. I'll be sure to let you know when I start writing those.

I ran 8 miles in 1:10:10 yesterday morning, which I believe is among my fastest paces ever for that distance. If I hadn't forgotten to register for the Broad Street Run, which took place this morning, this means I probably could have easily have broken 1:30, which was my goal last year, when I wilted in the unseasonably hot morning. I started to say "when I decided to hold back", but I think it was more a matter of "couldn't go fast" than "decided not to").

But anyway...I'd planned on switching my route up a little, and taking Board Rd and Wago Rd down into Mt. Wolf, but road construction interfered with my plans. I took a different road into Mt. Wolf, but just had to run around the town to make up the miles that I would have gotten on Wago. It was nice, I found a new place to run that's very close to home and also has lots of cross streets to run on, and most of them have sidewalks.

Thus, last week's Honor Bus 5K, in addition to being a good race, introduced me to a new running locale, which I think will be helpful this spring and summer -- I'm getting sick of the neighborhood I've been running in, and I don't like to run down to Goldsboro in summer because if I get overheated I'm potentially 5 miles away from home or car or at night in any weather because the roads are so narrow.

The downside is, as the name "Mt. Wolf" implies, it's really hilly. If any York County runners read this, and you know a nice, mostly flat place for a long run, I'd love to know it. It's like Manchester is on top of one hill, Mt Wolf another, and York Haven another, so wherever I go, I have to climb and descend some steep hills. I know this is good, since almost no race will be this hilly, but I don't like putting my knee through it every single time.

At any rate, though, it was a nice run in a nice new locale, and I'm looking forward to getting some more good miles in this week.