Despite this being ING NYC Marathon Week, rain put a brief damper on my mood as I headed out for hill repeats this morning. One thing about rain, no matter what you wear if you are running long enough you will get soaked. Since I was headed north, I would not see any of the bleachers and set up for Sunday’s race. Bummer. On the positive side, the hills are on asphalt so it is a tad less messy than running on muddy trails. On the negative, I always do my warm up and closing lap on the trails.
I left my apartment and dodged cars, dogs, people, buses and trucks. Good times. My legs felt good and I hit a rhythm early on in the run. After a quick warm up lap on a soggy Bridle Path, I slid towards Harlem Hill. Other than a police squad car and golf cart, it was fairly desolate … maybe 10 runners total for my time in the North Wood. I did 6 hill repeats at a modest pace. Last week I went aggressive and only managed 4 repeats. I wanted to see progress this week. I felt great at the end and pushed on back to the Bridle Path to finish up. While the rain was by no means hard, it was steady enough to completely drench the trail by the time I returned. I felt like I was playing hopscotch over and around puddles and rocks for 1.5 miles. I gave up on trying to keep the kicks reasonably dry after I slightly tweaked my ankle … nothing serious. I don’t mind being soaked head to ankle, but that wet, squishy feeling in my shoe drives me nuts. Luckily, that happened at the very end.
In the end, I called it a morning at 9:05 miles. Between dodging cars and what not and hopping around puddles, I gave up on speed and focused on living another day.