Table of Marathons

11 MCM (not for time) 11 Wineglass (950/1442)
10 MCM (not for time) 09 MCM (348/1076)
09 Washington's Birthday Marathon (22/44) 08 MC Historic Half (51/210)
07 Frederick Marathon (32/60) 06 MCM (394/1076)
05 MCM (547/1047)

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Nature

We did an easy run in cool drizzly mists at the north branch of the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge this morning. Three miles into the run we came across a bird claw in the road. Its talons, if spread, would have stretched to the size of the palm of my hand. I surmised that a hawk must have become unintentional prey to its dinner.

When we returned to the location after our run with a ranger, he made a different conclusion. The bird's leg - a red shouldered hawk - had been cleanly severed. He reasoned that the only animal that could have done this was a great horned owl. It must have made the kill in the woods and dropped the leg in flight as it bit it off.

My supposed predator wasn't that night.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Semper Fi

I ran 4 today in Greenbelt Park with Prince Georges Runners. It is a friendly local running club composed of runners and walkers of all ages and levels of fitness. We seem to be capped by a cluster of very fast Boomers, reflecting a national trend as that cohort ages.

I ran briefly with a veteran of the 101st Airborne. He has lost one leg below the knee and ran using a prosthetic. I can't say he was disabled. At 29, he shares with me the same concerns with middle-aged spread and I suspect he will be more successful at controlling it than I was as I entered my thirties. Yet, he did inspire me to finish my Semper Fi Fund profile and create the donation web site. The link is in the right-most column on my running blog.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Adaptation

We ran in 54F this morning, under a bright, cloudless, pre-dawn sky. I reminded Denise how we shivered at the 2005 MCM Runner's Village when it was 50F. The years of running through the winter have changed our perspectives on what is cold. Today we ran in shorts and light tops, sweating mildly as we worked up the neighborhood hills. The running evolves our minds and bodies, we exchange glances of mutual incomprehension. Bundled, fat, and warm, they speed by in their cocoons of glass, steel, and plastic as we, as endurance athletes, pursue a higher perfection of mind and body.