Throwback Runs

Since the Boston Marathon, I have had a hard time running over 2 or 3 miles. The thought of that seems absurd, seeing as for a few months there running anything under 8 miles was a joke. I don't know whether it is some sort of mental barrier, the idea that I'm not training for a specific race, the fact that I know that I need new shoes, or I know how terrible the crowned roads out here in the country are for my IT band, but for some reason I am having a hard time running.

I went for a run in the Lehigh Parkway one of my first days back in Pennsylvania after graduating. The Lehigh Parkway is where my high school cross-country team ran, and the site that I envisioned I was running at when in reality I was running block after block down Mass. Ave in Cambridge, or some other boring place to run in Boston. It was an interesting experience running in this place that I so often picture during my training runs. I must have been lost deep in that thought because I jumped nervously when I heard gunshots as I ran up the hill on my way to the covered bridge (AKA "Red"). This is a sound that I would have never thought twice of when I ran in the Parkway in high school. There is a police training academy in the Parkway that has a firing range...seems as though I forgot that for a brief second.

I had some of my proudest and toughest moments in the Parkway in high school, but despite the memories of tough practices or bad races, it is a soothing place to run. I think that is probably because I have logged more miles there than anywhere else in the world. I'm glad that I have a place like that to envision when I run elsewhere.


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Today I had to take my little brother to get a haircut, and figured that I would sneak in a quick run in Coopersburg rather than flipping through dumb magazines at the salon. I was right near my elementary school - the place where I consciously decided to BECOME A RUNNER - so I decided to run past it. I haven't been there since I switched schools in 4th grade, and it was 100% different! So wild!

The story of why Liberty Bell Elementary is where/when I decided to become a runner:

It was Field Day in 4th grade (until 3rd grade you have Play Day or Fun Day or something non-competitive), and I somehow got signed up for the 1/4 mile run, and WON! I remember thinking it was soo far and so hard, but somehow I won the event! I got a shiny blue 1st place ribbon, and from that moment on I decided that I was going to start training so that I could win again next year.

Little did I know I was switching schools in 5th grade, and my new school didn't have the 1/4 mile run as a Field Day event. They did, however, have cross-country. So I started that instead.