summer in april

this blog has fallen by the waist side. my last post was at the end of december - almost 4 months ago. a lot has changed, while a lot has stayed the same. i'm still in boston; i'm still employed at the same firm; and i'm still running. actually, a lot has stayed the same. same apartment; same cat; same love of upper crust pizza. the major change is a new girlfriend - jen! :-) like i said, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. haha! more than actually change, i've experienced a lot in the last 4 months including my first time in seats on the green monster at fenway park to watch the red sox, a relaxing weekend in maine with stops in portland and portsmouth, nh; best friends visiting for an awesome weekend; and the annual marathon monday party on beacon st.

in those last 4 months i've continued training, specifically for the pittsburgh half marathon. actually, i wouldn't classify it as training, though i ran a couple of sunday long runs with jen's training team, and did a speed workout as well as a hill one. regardless, i feel pretty good though physically and during my runs my goal of 1:3X:XX seems possible. but i'm still nervous. this is going to be my home race, and while the legend will be there cheering as he's done for a bunch of races, there should be a few more familiar faces in the crowd - or at least i hope so.

last night i did a 4 mile loop that combines a few hills. i ran it at an easy pace, and enjoyed the warm weather (it was in the mid 60's) and crowds of people around the neighborhoods. though at one point, coming down com ave and running near some buildings i imagined myself running in the half and the building the crowd coming out into the street and being right next to me. if the crowd is anything like building, i should feed off them and feel like i'm running on a cloud. a peak at my watch showed a 7:19 pace at one point, and i had to pull on the reigns to slow down and remember this was just a tapering run.

i'll probably go out for one more run on wednesday, and then rest for the remaining days till the half. i usually run pretty well after a long rest, so 3 days of no activity won't hurt - hopefully. ask me that question at mile 12. actually, forget the questions - just shout my name!