I Own This Street

It was a tad crisp when I stepped outside for my run this evening, but more enjoyably it wasn’t raining. My intention was to see how many sets of Christmas lights I could find and to put me in the mood I had loaded up the shuffle with Chris Botti’s December.

The legs felt energized and clicked over effortlessly, jogging down Linden toward the park, I love tapering. I received the weeks schedule last night and was smiling as I read through the events, it dawned on me that all the hard work was behind and it was time to get ready for the Grand Old Party.

I skirted the park and then headed toward Ross Bay Cemetery, toward an all too familiar street. You see, I own this street. Not because I live there (we live three blocks west) but because shortly after 6:00 p.m. this evening I was the fastest runner present. There exists an old bollard at one end preventing cars from coming down the east end. Just in front, a yellow 12 foot square, my starting block. About 100m down the street on the right hand side a basketball hoop and the space in-between… is mine.

The last few weeks my right gluteus/hamstring has been bothering me intermittently and although I was aware of it tonight I wasn’t concerned. I put my head down, leaned forward until gravity took over and kicked in the overdrive. Tonight I did six strides and they felt progressively faster, I was happily surprised not to feel the ill effects from Sunday’s race. The scores on the boards: 46:01, AHR 141.

Christmas Lights: 1 set