Sunday, February 3, 2008

dreams of springtime in paris

yesterday at practice we got a little surprise. the focus was on pacing and keeping it slow for at least the first third of our long runs now so that we have some juice left to make it to the finish. we were going to run as a group with the coaches leading the way and controling the pace for the first 5 miles. then ramon broke the paris runners off from the group because we were going to be running the perimeter of the park today on the outside.. meaning on the sidewalks which happen to be cobblestone. seems part of the marathon in paris is on cobblestone streets.

i was a bit nervous cause i was thinking of 'bond street' cobble stones... 4 inch stones with 3 inch gaps that my perfect size 6s can barely cover! i sensed an injury in my future... but it was not the case, the sidewalks are pavers which for the most part are pretty even. the bigger risk was the dog shit!

running a new route with the group always makes the run easier.. new scenery and many distractions to make the miles pass quickly. we got about halfway around the park and one girl, who will remain nameless (since i don't know any names!) started telling her friend about a new guy she's dating. i am not big on talking while i run, but i loooooooooove listening, so this was like striking gold! the story lasted for the entire rest of the run, and she was talking nice and clear so we could all enjoy the details! the upsetting part of the story was that they kept talking about how 'old' this guy was.. his nickname is even 'silverfox'.. turns out he's *GASP* 39!! only 2 years older than me! god i hope there are no guys out there calling me 'silverfox' yet. i figured i had at least 30 years before that!

the coach told us our perimeter run was roughly 7 miles, so once the group entered the park i ran an additional 5 mile loop and finished strong. the funny thing is that at one point a group (two women and a guy- not at all related to my earlier evesdropping) passed me.. the guy was talking about dating from a guys perspective, and said that 'there are very few details about a date that are actually important to a guy'... i suddenly flashed back to the earlier story and every minute detail that she recounted and how we hung on every one. i had to laugh at this most basic difference between men and women!

this nice morning was followd by a day of doing my taxes. i really think it was more painful that running 11.5 miles!

miles run: 11.5
dates she's gone on with the silverfox: 3 (the 4th is tonight)
predicted superbowl winner: GIANTS

1 comment:

roxie said...

silverfox at 39...man i forget a lot of these tnters are so young sometimes. but i take solace in the fact i not only get carded at the bars, but my id is usually scrutinized since the bartender/bouncer is usually in awe that i'm "that old". ;)

and i hope you didn't bet any money on your superbowl pick - GO PATRIOTS!!