"Man!"

It was 41 degrees, calm, and damp when I walked out of the office tonight at about 10 o'clock. I felt energetic and jogged to my car and decided to run the Ridge Road Loop before bedtime.

My idea was to run without stopping, but to go slowly. I ran the hard, hill-strewn course in 34:21. My splits were 8:52, 9:12, 8:40, and 7:37. Granted, the last mile drops at least 200 feet, but I don't think I have run a mile that fast in three years. The thought of breaking 35 minutes motivated me. Later, as I turned onto Orange from 47th Street, I wondered about breaking 34.

I looked at my split after the first mile and it shocked me. I thought, "Maybe 9:30. 8:52? Shit." I tried to relax, but when I saw I had run the 9:12 second-mile split, decided to shovel in all my coal and start racing. It was fun, unlike anything I have experienced since my return to this idiocy.

It's odd that averaging 8:35.3 a mile excites me, at least in the context of my running life (which started in November, 1973), but it does. Man. And this after a nice 4-mile effort earlier today.