33 for 33

I'm not sure why, but this week, to celebrate my 33rd birthday, I decided I would run 33 miles. I guess I felt I wanted to celebrate being healthy and able to enjoy another year of one of my favorite activities. I modified the practice of Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray who at 56, still runs his age on his birthday. While I wasn't up for all those miles at once, I decided across the course of the week was good enough.

It wasn't that far of a stretch from my usual weekly running schedule, as I've been averaging around 28 miles per week for the last month or so. But with a few birthday celebrations this week, it was a little tougher than I thought to squeeze in those extra miles.

But I did. After almost deciding to bag the idea on Friday when I was further behind schedule than I had hoped, I was motivated by some friendly teasing from Arizona. So I set out for a long run on Saturday, hoping that would take away a large portion of my remaining mileage. And it did. I ran 14 miles, the longest I have run since the marathon in April.

With 6.9 miles remaining, I set out this morning to meet my goal. I ran a bit over 4 miles on my own before meeting up with my old college roommate. Before I enjoyed running, Jackie and I would force ourselves to run to prepare for our respective pre-seasons (hers was soccer, mine, volleyball). I still don't understand why we never realized 3:00pm, in June/July, in Baltimore was an awful time to run. Perhaps that is partly why we hated it. Anyway, with humidity reminiscent of those Baltimore days, we set of for about 3 miles. The company and conversation was outstanding; a great finish to my 33 miles. And a great start to a new year.