Remember Saturday Running Commentary?

You thought it would never return, didn’t you?  I confess to some doubts myself.  However, this morning I got out of bed, into running clothes and was on the road before 6 a.m. (with my weekday overtime rising hour, 5:30 is totally sleeping in).

It was cool out, which was a nice difference from my last couple of runs.  Oh, I felt good. I had gone to bed early last night after a mere two glasses of wine so was able to congratulate myself on my forethought. It was also delightful to run at at time when traffic was sparse.  I crossed German Street with no problem and headed toward Main.

I had the idea to run up Main and across to the beginning of the path over the hydraulic canal.  I’m not up to hills yet or I may have continued up Main where there is a pretty good one.  The path was more my speed this morning.  As I ran along it, I thought I must walk it one day soon so I can pause and read the plaques that tell its history.  Maybe when I get a dog.  The dog could sniff around while I read.  Dogs like to do that.

Crossing back over German to follow the path presented no problem, but I did not stay on the whole path as originally planned.  I got distracted by a dead end street I have run down before.  There is a little space at the end where pedestrians can sneak through to another street.  I went that way, for something different.

My run was going splendidly.  I could keep this up for DAYS!  I knew that wasn’t true, of course.  In fact, one is not supposed to increase one’s run time more than 10 percent per week.  But I was having fun.  Soon I found myself on the street that ended at the parking lot of the HARC building at the end of German.  Should I run there then back down German?  I looked at my watch and tried to calculate times. I could run back down German and make it a Dead End Run, running up and down all the dead end streets on the north side of German.  Good plan!

By the time I got to the HARC building I realized there was no way I could run up and down all the dead end streets in the amount of time I wanted to run.  That was OK. I would keep my eye on the time and run up some of them.  I got around the building and looked toward Route 28.  A big dump truck was coming.  That was OK; he was going straight, not down German.

Just before I crossed the street, I saw a penny and stopped to pick it up.  It might be a penny from Heaven!  Two steps into the street I realized a car had turned onto German and was stopped to let me cross the street.  Yikes!  I waved and yelled, “Sorry!” then darted across the street and kept going up Lake Street.  I had not intended to go up Lake, thinking it might make my run too long.  However, since the car had nicely allowed me to cross the street, I didn’t feel right going on the sidewalk in the same direction.  After all, if I had only wanted to run on German Street, why hadn’t I stayed on my own side and no bothered the car?

I almost never run on Lake Street so I enjoyed to look at the houses. They run the gamut from newly worked-on to seen better days.  I especially like to see the flowers.  The street seemed long, but I ran all the way to the end.  Well, not quite the end, because at the very end some branches hung down from a tree and blocked me.  But almost the end.  Back on German Street I realized I would probably run more than 10 percent longer than my last run.  I’m sure that is all right, especially considering that I am returning to running and not building myself up for the first time.

The run was 28 minutes.  I did not run past the house.  I felt SO GOOD as I walked my cool down.  Why in the world do I ever stop running?  It is so silly of me!  Anyways, now I think I have a new Saturday run. Every week I can add another dead end street.  Then when I’m in really good shape and feeling bad-ass, I can end with a run up the hill to Herkimer College (formerly known as HCCC).  That will be something to blog about!