The Good

Happy Mother’s Day to all those who are. Unfortunately, my mom passed away much too soon, but will always remain a huge part of my life, so this is a bittersweet day for me.

This was one of those days where I wasn’t into the idea of getting out the door to run, but instead of sitting there wallowing in coulda, shoulda thoughts, I just went ahead and got the run done.

Running

Yesterday it snowed around 3 inches of the white shite and today it is still cold and blustery. Not a bad day to run, but not what we expect in May by any stretch of the imagination. I think that is part of the procrastination and negativity about getting out the door today, I just want decent weather and to be able to run in shorts and a t-shirt, not my winter gear.

The weather being what it was meant dressing in cold weather gear that I wear for running in March, not the usual May weather that I typically love. Yes, I even wore my running mittens today and was not a bit unhappy about the way I dressed.

Today’s run was not about going fast or anything other than a steady effort around the Middle Road Loop. My splits were consistent with the effort levels for those sections and about halfway through I predicted about 46:30 for a time. Guess what the time was when I finished?

• 1.0 – 9:02
• 2.0 – 8:41 / wind at my back, tar
• 3.0 – 9:07 / windy, traffic and hills
• 4.0 – 9:37 / wind tunnel, dirt road and hill
• 5.0 – 9:44 / hills, dirt road

• Distance: 5.03
• Time: 46:30
• Pace: 9:14

So the pacing was right on the button for what I wanted to accomplish this morning.

The Bad

Other than the weather.

I did notice a lot more traffic than there has been on the road lately this morning and it wasn’t because there was a lot of traffic going to the transfer station. Mother’s Day celebrations and visits were happening in quite a few yards that I went by. I understand people wanting to celebrate this day, it is an important day to many of us.

However, I just hope that the many celebrations that I saw over the course of the run and the people out traveling to see their mothers do not increase the number of new cases of COVID-19 or deaths. We will see what happens and how it goes.

What was I thinking?

I thought a lot about my mom, growing up and the talks we used to have. I do miss those talks and just being able to call her to yak for a while.

We are lucky that my wife has her daughters in the household and that we are celebrating her day later on.

While out on the run I did get a text from D2 and got to thinking about how great a mom she has become.

A lot of other thoughts rumbled through the old noggin out on the run this morning about the new blog and I thought about why I moved again from One Foot in Reality. Probably a blog post down the road will clarify that a little more, but I am happy with the choice and the opportunity to start completely fresh. No left-over posts or ghosts of past mistakes that haunt old blogs.

Again, Happy Mother’s Day and I hope everyone stays healthy and happy today.