In Honor of Kenya

In honor of the Kenyan Method, I decided it was okay to meet some friends at the pub Saturday night, knowing full well I had to run ten miles on Sunday. I drank anywhere from 4-7 pints before stumbling home on the last train, resolving to run at 8 AM. Around 1PM I finally laced up and rolled down the stairs. It wasn't pretty.

Thankfully, I knew going into my run that my A game wasn't an option, so I took it easy and just focused on grinding through it. My main objective was to avoid some of the steeper slopes in Greenwich Park, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way I could get to the second half of the park, which is on a high plateau, without resorting to either donkeys or being pulled on baskets attached to long ropes. Ultimately, I settled on a path that diverged before my normal run, which skirts the outside wall. I figured it would approach the hill more gradually than the usual route, which runs directly at the incline.

Against all logics of topography and probably physics, I somehow messed it up completely and ran up an entirely different hill before being deposited at the base of the very incline I was hoping to avoid, rendering my hangover-addled plan a complete failure and my hangover-addled body a complete wreck. Hills and beers simply don't seem to mix. Which must be why bars are generally built on flat terrain.

I ditched my usual hill strategy and got up to the upper area with a strategic combination of bitching, hating, and moaning that I learned on the fire trails. After that, the run was solid (endorphines + downhill) if uneventful, and I just rolled home and logged the time (around 9:20) without any further event.

Since I was tapering in the first week of January, I will end up about four miles short of my monthly goal in my attempt to run 1000 miles this year. But I feel pretty confident I can make that up in February, because um, it's a longer month (?). This week will be twenty two miles if the pints don't have anything to say about it. Next week, being German Karneval, promises to offer all kinds of challenges in balancing alcohol intake and running. I might be forced to attempt that elusive goal of actually drinking while running, something that Forrest perfected in the last miles of his marathon. I am, however, always up for a challenge.