Sunday 10K and Back from Boston

It's Friday, yet again. This week just blew by. I'm doing the Veteran's Day 10K here in Washington, D.C. this Sunday. I don't feel prepared. I've felt really sluggish on my runs this week, which were already truncated because of travel. And my runs last week were also cut short as I was in Denver.

But we'll see what this 'ol body can do. If I finish in under 52 minutes, I'll be happy. If I finish between 51:00 and 51:30, I will be ecstatic.

Below is something I wrote on Wednesday evening, but haven't had time to post until now:

I’m on a US Airways shuttle from Boston to Washington, D.C. I'm 27,000 feet in the air, and outside my window, the lights of New York City glitter orange and yellow. I was in Beantown for a quick overnight trip. For work. Talked to lots of suits, took a lot of notes both old-style (w/ reporter’s notebook and super-fine point pen) and new (company-issued ThinkPad). Will file a story tomorrow morning. But right now I can take my mind off of looming deadlines.

I want to tell you about my run this morning by the Charles River. I headed out of my hotel in downtown Boston a little before 7 a.m. It was already turning out to be a fine day, albeit a tad chilly. Clad in shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt, I shivered in the windy 49 degree-weather. But it was sunny. And the sidewalks were broad and empty.

First, I ran several long circuitous loops around Boston's Public Garden, located a half-block from my hotel. I didn’t push my pace. I just wanted to enjoy the sunny morning before starting a long day of interviews and networking, almost all with men 15-20 years my senior. Also, I had a rather frustrating 5-mile run on a hotel treadmill the night before. While CNN blared in the background, I and three men ran our lungs out on adjacent hamster mills. We were a sorry-looking, sweat-soaked, exhausted bunch at the end.

Anyway. On this run, I passed small clots of bundled-up elderly Chinese taking their morning constitutional; other runners who didn’t seem cold at all (New England seems to rear a rather hardy breed of runner); and commuters wearing comfortable shoes and headphones.

Pushing against a headwind, I then ran past the Ritz-Carlton, down Arlington Street, crossed Beacon Street, and ran up a traffic overpass, which spat me out onto the banks of the Charles River. Lots of runners here. All in shorts and technical shirts, with many wearing iPods. Lots of dogs off-leash too, which I liked.

I ran not on the pavement, but on a soft dirt trail worn smooth by many, may other runners. A crew team leisurely rowed on the river, which glinted in the November sun. I was starting to finally warm up and my feet didn’t feel as heavy as they did at the start of the run - although my hip joints ached a bit (from the treadmill?).

But I only had time for a 40-45 minute run. Time to turn back ...