02 - The Banshee Winds of New Jersey

This morning, woke up feeling a little rough around the edges. Two coffee kinda morning. Let that second one really take some time to hit the brain.

And then, of course, your obligation to go run at least 10k for some nothing internet thing you’re doing.

Winds were howlin’ somethin’ fierce. 28mph with gusts at 42mph. Temp felt like 30. I had decided to just reuse my shorts and t-shirt kit, but I was going to wear a long sleeve instead.
Then I remembered I should add gloves.
Then I decided to wear some pants.
Then I decided to wear my running jacket thing.
Then I decided to wear a knit hat.

Pretty soon I was in my full winter running kit. Hopefully for the last time this season.

Took the easy route today, no hills. Hills are for suckers.

Instead, I went through town, and then over into the neighboring town. Sights and sounds. Cars. Mostly cars. Cars are an ever-present, completely dominating aspect of being alive in America. Everyone goes everywhere by car. That’s how the whole thing is designed.

I run through this highway overpass and it’s terrifying. There’s a sidewalk through it, thankfully, but it’s such a chaos factory within that short little tunnel that half the sidewalk is covered in kicked up dirt and debris. Glass, rusted metal, goose shit, and all kinds of refuse that I can only assume that assholes ditch under the relative secrecy of the tunnel. The part of the sidewalk that is clear is the side that’s closer to the road, so I’m separated from these maniacs by inches, sometimes.

Also, because I’m right next to a giant wall of cement, the car noises echo really, really loudly in the tunnel. I can’t even hear the music in my headphones at full blast when cars are zooming by in there. Absolutely terrifying and it’s only like 20 seconds of a 90 minute run.

But, once I’m through there, it’s pretty easy runnin’. Lotta flat sidewalks everywhere. I run by a very good coffee shop that I’ve been meaning to stop in on during a run one day, but I’m usually just an ugly sweaty mess who smells and eats cat turds so I don’t stop in. Maybe Legg and Brain will get me over there on a run though.

This is all a bit arbitrary, ya know, the whole running long distances thing, so anywhere is just as good as any to turn around and make your way back when doing this. That turn around spot for me is through the parking lot of a now-demolished-and-all-remnants-completely-erased-from-existence senior living home.

The entire run is a big out and back, essentially. This route ends up being 9 miles, but because it’s so much flatter it’s a lot easier to run even with the extra miles.

Nothing really of note for the rest of the run. I saw a buncha sprouts popping up in someone’s little patch of garden, that looked cool:

But otherwise this is my easy route and it’s mostly just a mix of commercial and residential suburbs running. Boring miles, but they’re better than no miles.

When I got home I ate a bunch of food because I have no self control:
2 fuji apples
plate of pita chips
4 abes blueberry mini muffins
the last little remainder of a bag of kashi blueberry cluster cereal
tomato soup w/oyster crackers tossed in
bowl of mixed fruits (bluebs, strawbs, cherries, a singular blackberry)
plate full of girl scout cookies
handful of chips
plate of thai chili tofu
plant-based snow crab sushi roll
vegan ice cream king cone

(FYI you should not eat like this. I’m a professional so I can eat like this, but you definitely shouldn’t if you respect yourself.)

Running Stats:

9.24 miles
in
1:35:00
so it was
5.8mph on average
with
801 feet of climb
and I’ve run
16.28 miles this Spring