A Midsummer Night's Run

It's actually a midsummer morning, but A Midsummer Morning's Run doesn't quite have the same ring to it. It is still dark, so there's that. 

Dan heads South on Substation Road. In the early morning gloom, he spots fireflies in the woods and a shooting star up above. Even though it's a Monday and he just did a long run last Thursday, he's going for 18+ today as well. But that will be tough at this slow pace.

He reaches his Decision point, the intersection of Substation and Sleepy Hollow. From here, a left turn will take him on his nine-mile course. Right or straight are for his two eleven-mile ones or his sixteen-mile course. Nine miles would be half of 18, and it would provide the opportunity to complete the second half of the run on the mill. He turns left.

These semi-rural roads can be great for running. As long as there isn't much traffic. Unfortunately, today's early-morning commuters did not receive the memo instructing them to remain off the roads for a few more hours. All this traffic is the main reason Dan rarely ventures on these courses anymore. He thought he could beat it today, but that's not happening. Early on Sunday mornings may be the last hope.

Dan manages to complete the slow nine-plus miles, but now he's still got nine to go. It's light out, and it's getting hotter. After an intermediate coffee and banana, onto the mill he goes. 

He does nine-plus more, so count it as nineteen for the day. It's not his best or proudest moment. But it's done.

Long

For the first time in nearly two months, I managed to do a long run today. It wasn't pretty, but it's DONE.

Daily running

Want further details? Here are a few: I started early, and it was already warm and humid. I did around 6 miles at the track, then 5.5 with friends at the Square, and then 6ish more back at the track. Even though it wasn't particularly fast, it was fairly steady, and I finished fairly well. Now, we start the big push.

Big Heart Update

I posted about a brain study that I was in, where the finding that I had an enlarged heart. Further testing confirmed that my right ventricle was dilated, and my right atrial cavity was severely dilated. Yesterday, I finally got to see a Sports Cardiologist.

After further confirming all the test results, she reviewed my history and lifestyle. Then she explained a whole lot, ending with (and I do believe these were her exact words): "It's the running, stupid."

Not really. She did actually say that my heart is just fine. In fact, I should keep doing what I'm doing.

I was gonna anyway.

Today's Tremendous Tuesday Track Tempo Trot

Been a while. It's warm and extremely humid as Dan hits the track this Tuesday with his friends. He warms up a little, not that he needs it in this heat. How much of a warm-up? Oh, six miles. If you said Dan was very much warmed up by the time he began his tempo trot, you wouldn't be wrong. Everyone else is wrapping up their workouts. But Dan begins his, and lo and behold, Dan becomes almost like the Dan of Old. He does four miles at a decent, though not too fast, pace.

The pain is nearly gone. The goal now is to get the fitness back slowly. Very slowly.

2026 Medina Twin Sizzler "race" report

Photo: Julie Boggs

Today's "race" wasn't bad. I do the Medina Twin Sizzler nearly every year, and it always sizzles with fun. The Square is alive with activity, and all my friends are there. I ran the 5K very slowly, and the 10K a little faster. That's something that never happened before.

Photo: Shannon Barnes

Although even the slightly speedier 10K was slow overall, I am happy to say that I managed to not hurt myself. It was relatively pain-free. This is highly encouraging.

Now, all I have to do is get back into shape. That's no small task.

Photo: Julie Boggs

Roscoe Ewing Park Trail

Dan commences his fourth sojourn down the Roscoe Ewing Park Trail. He had gone out and back with the 5:30 group, with the 6:00 group (there was some overlap among the runners), with one person after all that to go back to pick up the walkers, and finally, this time, alone. Why is he doing this in the ridiculous 81-degree early-morning heat? Because he wants his run to be in the double-digits, of course.

Dan knows that you have been wondering why he can no longer manage to run long distances. He would answer that the reason he can't run eighteen miles is that he can't do ten miles. The nagging injuries, of which he has many, keep him well under double-digits, and those used to be Dan's standard (almost-always) daily distance. Lately, unfortunately, five miles is the new ten.

Today will be different, thinks Dan. He will get his double-digits, even if it kills him and all his running friends. (Well, okay; not them. They were smart enough to get done and go home.) Dan shuffles back to the Square. His watch tells him that he did 10.1 miles.

This bodes well for a couple of reasons. He has the Medina Twin Sizzler coming up in two days. It will entail running a 5K and a 10K in this hot weather. Dan now believes that he may be capable of running the nine-plus-mile distance. It also bodes well because Dan managed to not be in an excessive amount of pain today, not even for the final miles. Will his good luck continue? Stay tuned.

 

The collection

When a photographer wants you to buy photos from a race, they provide proofs that you can choose from. In the old days before digital photography, they would send small proofs in the mail. Although I only bought a few photos, I kept all the proofs. Until now. Now, they're going in the trash.

But I still have all my bibs. ALL my bibs.

Running through the decades, on the sixes

It occurred to me that this knee injury is similar to one that I had in 2006. So I looked at my blog posts to remind myself of all the gory details. More on this exercise in a bit. First, let's take a look back at some other things that were happening in other past decades.

• 70 years ago, in 1956, I wasn't running much, except maybe a little bit around the yard. How could I? I was three. 
• 60 years ago, in 1966, I was running, but only enough to get by in football and baseball. At 13, sports were my life. I think I liked track and field, but wasn't yet ready to participate.
• 50 years ago, in 1976, I was indeed running. The running boom was happening all around, and I was in the thick of it. But I was only just getting started. To the best of my recollection, my first serious road race was not until the Johnnycake Jog race the following year.
• 40 years ago, in 1986, I had already run a few marathons, and having made the move to Michigan, was just beginning to run regularly again and train for my next one, which would occur in 1987.
• 30 years ago, in 1996, I was pretty much at my peak, running-wise. Interesting that this occurred around age 43 for me. I ran my third-ever ultra, which wasn't a big deal, and I ran four marathons (two of them under three hours), which was. The last one, a 2:59 at Toe-to-Tow, precursor to the Towpath Marathon, was the last time I ever broke three hours. For that and other reasons, it remains one of my most memorable.
• 20 years ago, in 2006, I was also having a good year. Until I wasn't. In April, I ran the Boston Marathon in 3:09. It was my best time in five years. Now 53, I truly believed I had a chance to break three hours for the first time since that Toe-to-Tow race, ten years past. This time, my focus was on the Columbus Marathon in October. Hold this thought for one more moment, so I can discuss 2016. I'll be back.
• 10 years ago, in 2016, I was into ultras, in a big way. Although I'd done one marathon, Landis Loonies, my focus was on the four ultras that I did: Green Jewel 50K, Rock the Ridge 50-mile, Mugrage Park 6-Hour, and Buckeye Woods 50K. Of those, Rock the Ridge was the most unique and memorable.

Now, let's get back to 2006, shall we? I had run the Tahoe Triple the prior year. It was three challenging marathons in three consecutive days. To train for it, I ran long runs on consecutive training days. During the peak of my Columbus training block, I decided to run two 20-milers on back-to-back days. Toward the end of the second one, I felt a sudden sharp pain behind my right knee. And just like that, it was the end of my sub-3 hopes. I ran a painful 3:18 in C-bus and never managed to get under 3:10 again.

Today, I decided to look up the blog post about that incident. I never figured out exactly what caused the pain, but at the time, I speculated that it was a torn meniscus. Whatever it was then, I believe it's the same thing now. 

The good news is that I did not stop running entirely, and the pain did eventually subside... after many months.