First Monday 8 miler

COVID-19, “ The Rona Era”

So far it’s somewhat warm out. 33 degrees and I don’t need heavy layers…yet. On the Marathon training schedule, I needed to run 8 miles this past weekend. That didn’t happen. I slept in and went to a body strengthening and conditioning class and Sunday I rest and brunched. Now it’s Monday.

I knew I could do 8 miles around the Charles River without having to plan and plot how to get my miles. Daylight doesn’t come until 7:15a.m. It’s still dark out for a while. I reached the MIT side of the Charles by 5:55a.m. I got lucky and found a parking spot on memorial drive.

Everyone was running along the river at 6a.m. What annoyed me, was the lack of runners, especially female runners that were not wearing any kind of reflective gear. I had on my headlight because it was dark. Yes, there are the lights of the city but it’s still dark out. Many people, were running in dark clothing.

This is when the gendered differences come out. As I ran, I was the only black person running along the Esplande too.

My first 8 miler. It has been a while. I’ll be honest, the first three were a bit challenging. I made sure before I left to house to eat a little bit of peanut butter and jelly and I had some hydration. I’m being mindful, to fuel up the gas tank as I add on more miles.

Around mile 4 is when I felt my groove and pace. I was being mindful to pick up my knees and not have lazy knees. Also, less picture taken.

As I was running, I literally ran into a friend of mine. As a white man, he knew better than to follow me while running but he wanted to get my attention. Then when I looked at him, I knew it was a friend of mine not some random weirdo. That was a fun surprise.

When I ran into him it was around mile 5 . Finishing the rest of the three miles went by fast and I felt good. This is the baseline start.

8.10miles, 11:15/ml pace; 1:31min