Welcome to My Marathon Running Site 2008!

00:51:00 - Ran home from work doing 9 separate, hard sprints, after each one I walked until I got my breath back then jogged to the next straightaway and sprinted. It was a fun workout. I think next time I will do this on Insulaner hill since running up that hill at the end is so much more aerobic, no matter what speed you go, you are whizzed at the top. Nice weather today, sunny/cloudy/cool. A fun run, went fast.

01:15:00 - Took off easy then increased to a really strong stride, leaning forward, arms in motion, felt good. Kept this up for a good 50 minutes and pushed it. Got a green tea lemonade at about 1:00 and then did a warm down in, which was at least marathon pace. Very nice run today, felt good.

01:48:00 - Ran the Street 229 route straight across to Lichterfelde Ost (00:50), ran through the train station interior and out, turned left down Morgensternstrasse to Ostrpreußendamm, I had been running quite hard and steady and my legs were beginning to feel naturally worn (01:05) so remembering Pete's advice which somehow rings true for me ("no use running 3 hours if you're whizzed at 2") which means for me that on the long runs, it's important to run hard to get a good workout but you don't want to run past the training-over point where you are just broken trying to keep moving forward. So I could sense that I had about 1 more hour of good training run in me and I cut up the dead-end alleyway toward the power plant and found the old trail I used to run back in the 90s before I did marathons. It was blocked off a bit now so I got thrown back out on the street next to a gas station and got a wonderful bottle of green apple tea, cut north which got me back on Drakestr. and I ran all the way up to the university and out the X83 loop back home. The finish is downhill and I finished with a good stride legs a bit sore from good training, a really nice run! This was the first run I had my new MP3 player, 2 GB for 24 euros -- was going to buy a 2GB USB stick for 20 euros anyway, go figure, and now I have an MP3 player that has tempo speed to slow down the French, listend to RFI French Facile (which I play at a slower speed) and by the time you get back from your run they usually have the transcript finished so you can read all the words you didn't understand, very nice service. I also listened to an "In Our Time by Melvyn Bragg" episode from the BBC (rss feed here) which is about an hour of British intellectuals discussion something, this time it was John Donne and the metaphysical poets from the 1600s, I forgot how racy some of that poetry was but also filled with a sense of "new things coming" with the discovery of the new continent and new science back then, reminded me a bit of our time now with the changes and uncertainty coming in the 21st century. In any case, this was another well-orchestrated run: good physical training coupled with a fresh wave of academic ideas, very nice.

00:50:00 - Ran straight home from work doing 8 sprints, each about 2 minutes long, it was a very hot day, lots of sun still at 6 PM. Had to get an iced tea half way at the gas station, very refreshing today. Decent run.

01:55:23 - Berlin is building a new airport which should be finished and serving 20 million passengers a year by 2011, so I decided to go do the 3rd annual AirportRun Half Marathon and check out the progress of the new airport. I saw lots of holes in the ground and "pieces of overpass" but other than that, there is a lot of work to do before anyone will be touching down on any of the new runways there. Most of the runners arrived on the S-Bahn near the current small airport, then they carted us in packed buses over the Autobahn for 15 minutes to the middle of the construction site where we started (tip: get to this race early, lots of confusion before you get to the starting line). I never imagined an "AirportRun" could be so hilly, I think most the race was made up of slow upward inclines. The first part of the run was winding hills valleys getting out of the construction pit and construction valleys but when we got out of that, it was like a jog through idyllic Brandenburg: nice green treed alleys and fields as far as you could see. We ran through a couple little towns upon which fate is not smiling, all of them peaceful little villages lined up at the end of a future international airport runway, unsurprisingly we saw a number of "For Sale" signs along the way. My goal was to get "decently under 2 hours" and got a 01:55:23 with hills and sun which was alright. Pete basically got the same time in his Lake Placid half marathon two weeks ago so we are on track for our sub-4 marathon together in Berlin this September. At least the math works out, but its the muscles that matter and I know I couldn't have done another half marathon at that same pace yesterday, so more training with longer runs is in the pipeline before the big run in September!

00:45:00 - Ran the short version of the Street 229 route home, only had to wait two times, nice, leaned forward, kept a strong pace all the way, probably could have kept it up for 30 more minutes, I listened to a Chi Running audio about a guy who uses it after he had foot surgery since it is a running style where you don't have to push off, concentrated on that, just leaning into the run, small steps and keeping my legs motoring like on a bicycle, a fun way to run. Listened to IT conversations on the MP3, nice, refreshing run.

01:25:00 - Started out slow again but quickly had good pace, concentrated on falling forward, to effect this I find you have to take shorter steps so you have the constant feeling you are running up to the edge of a pool and about to fall in, worked well, at about 1:05 a car drove by and out came flying a full day timer which landed and broke up in the middle of the intersection. When the light turned green I ran out and grabbed it, looked through it to see if I could find a name to call, then just gave it to the gas station attendant. Odd: how can a day timer just "accidently" fly out of a window, and if it were done on purpose, why in the middle of a busy intersection and not e.g. in a river? Anyway, enjoyed being at the scene of a mystery, bought a drink then took off home for strong 20-minute run through cool trees, sun was low by then, lots of joggers to pass, really fun. AirportRun half marathon is on Sunday, I'm thinking of shooting for a 1:55 and then adjusting accordingly depending how I feel, it could be hot, can't imagine they have many trees around the airport.

00:41:00 - Started out slow and built up this time, then concentrated on the "falling forward" technique. Actually the best way to keep this form is the "I am Roadrunner" meme, works well, ran the "Street 229" route, very nice, and then home over the foot bridge, a short, not-too fast but very solid and constant run.

00:30:00 - This was my fastest run so far, started out with and maintained a faster-than-marathon pace all the way from work to the gas station on Steglitzer Damm, I could tell I was running faster since I kept getting green lights and could not rest (ugh!) but I had the pace in me and just kept on chopping. Ran with a Chi alignment leaning forward, I remember from cross country the being-pulled-with-a-rope-on-your-nose meme. Had energy for the Priesterweg tunnel stretch, was surprising actually since last time I had lost my tempo there a bit, very nice, what a joy to run when you have a constant energy source.

00:43:00 - Did some good sprints in a the half hour running to the Insulaner Hill, fastest this year, felt good. The two hills I did as fast as I could, both at 04:11, am recovering well and quick, nice day to run, rained all afternoon and then stopped right before I ran, very cool and fresh out.

01:31:00 - This was the best run of the year I took off on my normal 1.5-2.0 hour route down Britzer Damm but then saw a little road turning right so I took it and it turned out to be a nice, quiet, low-traffic straight road that cuts through a good part of Berlin without having to stop, at one point it is even called "Street 229" since at parts its not really a road but a walkway that separates backyards of typical south Berlin suburbia, at one point I even saw a horse in a little shed, really nice, then got to Ringstrasse and ran into the canal, wanted to run along it but the growth is too much so got back on Kaiser Wilhelm Str. and as soon as I could cut off of that and ran through quiet suburbia again which brought me all the way to Königsbergerstr. which is Lichterfelde West and that gives you a straight shot down the nice running street Drakestr. and then Unter den Eichen and the French Quarter/Park path back, and wonderful route discovered today! Turned out to be almost 17K which is nice, I can vary this one in different ways to make it longer. The best thing about this run though was that I had a strong, clipping, marathon-pace throughout, even at the end I was running hard and no signs of wanting to slow down, just a body wanting to run, that's what I remember from 2004. My marathon pace calls for 1:36:17 at 17K so I was under my marathon pace actually even with stop lights, checking out the canal, and getting a drink (a delicious Mango Tea) at a gas station where I literally ran in, bought, and was on my way in less than 50 seconds I think, I just felt like running today, what a wonderful feeling. Definitely the best run of the year, nice workout!

00:37:00 - Took off with a very nice tempo and kept it all the way to the end, took another route today along the canal, mostly to stay out of the sun along the nicely treed pathway and subsequently got home in under 40 minutes. I had a good clip going along the whole way, at about 20 minutes started to fall back a bit but kept it up and then it just became a regular pace, felt I could have kept it going at that speed maybe for an hour. Nice run!

00:51:00 - Took off on an adventure run up north this time, got a bit lost and all of a sudden was on my familar route, so I just ran it home. Did some intermittent sprints, ran pretty hard, not that hot today.

00:51:00 - Kept a more-than-aerobic pace for about 3/4 of the way, then it was just too hot, settled back down to a decent strong pace, good short workout today. Five stop lights so I get to rest a bit.

01:29:00 - Went the standard winter run and then up to Lichterfelder Ost and then through the Komponistenviertel, a nice 1.5 hour route. Kept a steady marathon pace through the first 50 minutes, it was very HOT (almost 32C/90F) and sun on my face, wore my tank top, listened to my French for the first hour then switch to Jason Jollins after my gas station tea, mouth was very dry even though I drank four big glasses at work throughout the day, legs really didn't get a workout, perhaps need to push it more but it was hot and I kept a good sub-aerobic pace, tried to keep it at the end as well, no break down but felt like it would have been there at about 2 hours, the days are so long now it is hard to run when the sun isn't shining, funny, the opposite of winter.

00:45:00 - Straight home from work, ran at a more-than-Marathon pace the whole way to Insulaner hill. My rule on my tempo run is "if you are not breathing heavy then speed up, if you are breathing heavy then keep that pace", it is very aerobic. I have to stop at about 4 stop lights in 40 minutes so I get rests which work out great. Only had time for one hill so ran it as fast as I could only got a 04:28:00, it was also hot today, the hottest run this year.

01:00:00 - Straight home from work, did the marathon pace / sprint / recover cycle again, that is a nice way to get an aerobic workout anywhere you run. I remember sprinting during runs was one thing I did in 2004 when I almost got under four hours. Then did 3 hills without looking at my watch, hard to keep them constant.

00:41:00 - Needed to get home quick today so did a 41 minute run, first time I did the three speeds again: (1) marathon pace, then when I have the pace down I pick out a straight-away and (2) sprint, then do (3) fifty steps slow jog to recover, then back to marathon pace. Lots of aerobic activity today. I think it's important to get to the lactic acid point often, your body needs to be able to use that instead of be disabled by it. Fun run, fast.

01:20:00 - Concentrated on pace today, looked at the stopwatch at three points on my hill runs so I could gauge if I should speed up or not and was able to keep a 4:30 pace on the last three. This loop is about a .8 kilometers so the pace is about right on my 5:39 K marathon pace, and with a hill so I like it. Running a pace is different and very nice. Didn't have my music today and enjoyed the softness of the silence, but I think I want to take along my lectures and French and let my body "learn the pace" while my mind "learns the French". I'm excited about this. Also stretching and back exercises is already helping me just feel better during the day, I'm going to start doing workouts of some kind on my off days.

01:25:00 - First training run for the Berlin marathon in September and first since the Hannover marathon, felt good, kept a marathon pace 30 minutes to Insulaner and then did 6 hills, pretty constant, hill is tough, lots of runners on it, was going to do 10 but on the sixth had a strange cramp in the left upper leg and didn't want to press it since I haven't run on a hill in years.

04:45:32 - Although the second half of the race hammered me, kilometers 1 to 23, were fun and fast, had lots of energy, pretty country side to look at, beautiful blue sky and white, fluffy clouds and fresh air, great memories. I ran hard to get a decent half-marathon time (01:53:03), the kind I need to get if I am going to get under four hours, still had the 03:45:00 balloon in site at 18K, and had ran together with a guy from Bremen who runs 03:40:00 marathons for about an hour talking and trading marathon tips. I was just sort of expecting that the long runs I had done during the last month would put the "tiger in the cat" during the second half, but the tiger never came, and the cat went home, and I was stuck with a body out of energy that was difficult to keep moving forward. At 28K when the 04:15 balloons passed me, I officially admitted defeat to the Marathon God, found a pace that I could maintain, and just kept at it, nothing else I could do really, never walked though, and actually tried to enjoy the wonderful weather a much as I could, it really was a gorgeous day, not only thousands of runners out by the parks were filled with people sunning themselves, hundreds of people on bikes, etc. A perfect day for a marathon.

01:16:00 - Did the basic beginning run down Buckower Chaussee, didn't have full energy, seemed tired from Friday's lack of sleep, felt like I couldn't take fully deep breaths, amazing how many factors play a role in getting a good time in a marathon, but after 1:00 I got into a nice rhythm, was fun to run. Main thing is nothing hurts when I run. Next Sunday is Hannover.

00:40:00 - A strong run home from work, nine minutes better than my last time, wonderful to run in the sun, after 30 minutes had a strong pace, felt good.

00:49:00 - This was my first run of the year that didn't end in the dark, first run without scarf and sweater, what a nice feeling, just a short one home from work, ran hard, felt good, very aerobic just keeping the legs loose, they are totally recovered from the 35K eleven days ago. Hannover marathon now two weeks away, want to do some regular short runs like this up to the end of April.

04:20:00 - Took off at 17:17 after work and ran east, did a 5K by the time I got into Treptower Park and then through it, funny I have run through Treptower Park a number of times and have never stumbled upon the larger-than-life Soviet War Memorial there, need to navigate to it sometime. At any rate by the time I got into Treptower Park my sore calves came back a bit and since I knew I was going to be doing around 35K I ran gently on them from then on, did some nice, slow long distance and enjoyed traversing the city of Berlin from East to West, coming out of Treptower Park on Elsenstr. I took a quick left at what looks like a train bridge back into a little outdoor patio restaurant and then up some steps to get to the jogging path that goes over the old railroad bridge, the only reason I know about this shortcut was I used to run this trail the other way and this was the only way out back onto Elsenstr. So ran through Görlitzer Park at which point it started to rain lightly but was actually refreshing, and ran through the center of the Kreuzberg scene up Oranienstr., then passed the Bundesdruckerei along Kochstr. and turned up and ran past Checkpoint Charlie after which they have a nice street museum-type exhibit which shows scenes of Check Point Charlie through the last half century, I realized what a focal point Check Point Charlie was of global East/West tensions when I saw a large picture of the Check Point Charlie area during the Cuban Missile Crisis which was a half-a-world away. Onward up Friedrichstr. you could smell the money, in a shop window saw a dress with a 4-digit price tag, the belt, purse, and shoes that went with it each had 3-digit figures, then turned on Unter den Linden and ran the last 1K of the Berlin marathon through the Brandenburg gate. A nice rain shower doused me down Strasse des 17. Juni which was a refreshing half-time interlude, afterwards it became more of a dusk/night run, calves held out well since I was going easy, legs really didn't hurt at this point which is a good sign, got a drink, enjoyed a sandwich out of my body bag as I completed the 6K straight-line run from Brandenburg Gate to the Funk Turm, after which it was decidedly night and time to turn back home, I realized I needed more energy so after a quick jaunt on Kudamm I stopped in and got a Snickers Bar at a gas station which gave me energy again, and after that I settled into a let's-just-make-it-home pace through Charlottenburg/Dahlem/Steglitz, stopped one more time at Edeka to get a drink, then made it home. Two days later my legs are healthily sore, no bad pain, I feel good about these long runs. Hopefully that is enough to keep my stamina going past 30K in the marathon in one month, I feel good about it, I will now taper off my runs and do daily stretching to make sure all muscles are loose and strong for the race. That was a nice peak for this training season.

03:35:00 - Started out from work at 5:00 P.M. today so that I would get home at a decent hour and so that it wouldn't get too cold. The weather was a mixture of cold, crisp air, a light grainy hail storm with swirling winds, then it cleared up and after it got dark another light, grainy hail storm, in all it was COLD. This time I took along my black hat in my body bag and when I got onto Fischerhüttenweg into the trees was immediately very cold so I put on the hat, what a nice relief, was necessary tonight. Anyway, at the very beginning of my run after about 15 minutes my calves got pretty tight especially my left one. I tried to stretch them a bit but to no avail of course. I realized afterwards that I only had 6 days rest from my last long run, before that I had 9 days. Six days is too short I think, my legs were not yet recovered. Hence I think I will do only ONE more of these long runs in about 10 days, then taper down toward the marathon on May 4. Need to do a lot more stretching too. Couldn't really tell the point where my legs broke down since my calves hurt pretty much the whole way. In order to extend my run over last time, at Onkel-Tom-Str. I took off up north along the road that goes into Grunewald and then connects to Hüttenweg out to Clayallee.

As soon as I ran into the Grunewald forest, it began to dawn on me how dark it was, and then I realized there were no street lights whatsoever, and when there were no cars going by, then there was no light, only a very deep blue sky canopy above the trees after your eyes got adjusted, but it was beautiful, and quiet, and cold. I took out my head phones and stood there for awhile and just appreciated this little freezing oasis, the only light being the moon trying to shine through some clouds. This little pause, the snow, the quietness, and the long way I still had to go reminded me of Robert Frost's poem:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

This was my longest and toughest training run ever, my legs are really sore. Coming up our two flights of stairs when I came home was not unpainful, same with untying my shoes. Stretching was almost impossible and afterwards I started a fit of shivering until I got into a warm shower. Wow, I never knew warm water could feel THAT GOOD! In any case, I think I am going to be in the top 2 percentile of people in Berlin who appreciate the warm spring weather when if finally gets here. Good night!

03:13:00 - This was my longest run of the year so far, leg-breakdown happened at 02:40:00 (up from 02:25:00 last run) which is what I'm after, if I can keep bumping this magic little moment up by 15 minutes every run then the sub-four marathon in May will be a reality. After the break-down (Dahlem Dorf) I shuffled along for about 10 minutes, got a tea at the gas station, shuffled some more, then actually got a good pace coming in. The temperature was cold, cold, cold, actually 1 (one) degree celcius, about 33 Fahrenheit, head was actually cold quite a bit with my sweaty head rag on, need to remember that sub-zero weather needs a warm hat. The weather forecast predicted snow, sun and lightning, but I optimistically took my running clothes to work anyway. For about 2 hours in the afternoon at the office it snowed for 10 minutes and the sun shone for ten minutes, off and on, never saw any lightning. On the way down the stairs on my way out to run it was snowing and when I walked out the door of the building the sun was shining and it never snowed again, go figure, but it was cold, cold, cold. The night sky however was beautiful: dark blue with brilliantly clear stars, and soft scattered clouds illuminated by an almost full moon that keep. On the MP3 program this evening I had kickin' Jason Jollins as always for the first hour (this years theme track "Jason_Jollins_Part_3_Live_Club_Mania_Bulgaria_September_2007.mp3"). Next some Champs-Elysees at 5-times reduced speed, and then an awesome lecture by the Argumentation professor David Zarefsky from the Teaching Company, topic was "Statis -- The Heart of Controversy" where he discussed four kinds of responses to a statement of argument: [1] "you stole my car / no I didn't" (conjecture), [2] "you stole my car / no I just borrowed it" (definition), [3] "you stole my car / yes, and it's a good thing since I took someone to the hospital" (quality) and [4] "you stole my car / this isn't the proper place or time to talk about that" (place). Each response focuses the fulcrum point or "stasis" of the argument at a different point. Then he got a 3 x 4 matrix going with a policy argument on HMOs in which he had Conjecture, Definition, Quality at the top and Ill, Blame, Cure, Cost along the left, and gave an example response for each of the 12 boxes. It was so absorbing by the time he finished I was running past the Zehlendorf S-Bahn station. Wonderful. It's awesome to be running around in zero-weather at night your head in a college classroom with an awesome professor. After that my head was so full I just put on Jason Jollins again and listen to the whole track (77 minutes) which ended right when I got home.

02:55:00 - Took off at 5:45 and was just able to see the last glimpes of the sun disappearing which gave me another 45 minutes of light. As always had a strong run for 50 minutes, gas station, tea, cool down, but then noticed that I had a really clippy pace after that while listening to my French, very nice, this continued until almost 1 hour 45 minutes and it was at about 2:25 that leg breakdown set in but was able to run decently all the way in. It was just a bit cool (really needed my scarf tonight) which kind of made it chilly if I slowed down, can't wait till WARM and SUNNY runs, that will be a joy. Listened to Champs-Elysees and one lecture on Greek Mythology (An analysis of Sophocles' Oedipus, was not as intriguing as the History of China which I finished that last week. I'm going to order "Argumentation: The Study in Effective Reasoning next. This 3-hour Zehlendorf route has wonderfully long, wide and lighted sidewalks so you can pay attention to the topic as you run. For lunch I had my famous sub-4 pasta salad and drank probably about 10 cups of fruit tea sweetened with apple juice. Felt good tonight, nice run.

00:48:00 - Did a quick run home tonight, ran strong and fast, legs felt good. This was the first after-work run this year that started with a non-black sky. This was a nice run, but I am convinced that it is going to be the break-your-legs-down long runs that will matter. The natural rule is: "Your legs will give out in a marathon at the point of your longest training run." So my goal for the Hannover Marathon is to work up 15 minutes at a time to a 4-hour training run.

02:25:00 - The longest run of the year so far, basically "orbited my house" in a big C-shaped sweep, up through Lichterfelde West and at Drakestr. kept going up my old route to the Free University then right to Dahlem Dorf U-Bahn and back home, which turned out to be about an extra 25 minutes. Legs felt better than I thought when I was finished, but the next day I was "healthily beat", feel the legs regaining strength through being sore, so in the coming weeks I want to up this long run to 2:45 then 3:00 then 3:15 each time finishing with "lightly broken-down legs" until we push the 30K goblins further and further out of the race on May 4, about two months to go now.

02:00:00 - Another nice 2-hour run (exactly), this time I felt some strength come out at about 01:15:00, this time I *trucked* down the long semi-dark Baselerstr. instead of "exhaustedly stepping" as I have been at that point up to now, even on Gardeschützenweg I had a nice, strong pace going (01:45:00) and finished with energy left. This run was the first time that at the beginning I it was not "night" per se but if you looked up you could see a dark, blue glowing dome, signifying that it wasn't quite yet night, my daylight runs should coincide nicely with the 3-hour and 3.5-hour runs I want to do in April before M-Day on May 4th in Hannover. I actually had my scarf off from 01:00:00 but in the last ten minutes going up Birkbuschstr. it suddenly got icy cold (I think because of the proximity to the canal) which made me more than glad that I had a scarf to put on.

02:01:00 - Had a nice run after work yesterday, got my run coordinated with my mp3s and gas station: 50 minutes of hard running with a beat track up to gas station, get drink, then slower (since right there the sidewalks get dark anyway) and about 30 minutes of French, then the rest Chinese History, all had a even pace, I felt like I had another half hour till full leg breakdown this time. I shut down my computer at 5:45 and ran out the door at 6:00, nice, but it was already dark, half moon, clear, cool night. However, at 5:15 it was still quite bright out, so it won't be long before we get out of the dark.

00:45:00 - Ran home fast, got some good speed going, turned left down Röblingstr. so it took a bit longer to get home.

01:37:00 - Took off feeling great, so great that I took a wrong turn down Fulhamer Allee, I realized it because I started running past some beautiful mansions I had never seen before lit up at night, very nice, don't really know where I was, somewhere around Parchimer Allee, kept running in the direction I thought would get me back to Britzer Damm and finally made it, felt really strong for a good hour listening to Jason_Jollins_Part_3_Live_Club_Mania_Bulgaria_September_2007.mp3 with its kicking beats, that is definitely the best mp3 for an hour run, so at an hour now I run into the gas station, I execute my gas station visits like a pit stop now, unstrapping my body bag and grabbing my wallet out in one motion as I sprint through the gas pumps toward the door, dart into store smiling at the attendant so he he doesn't get scared and press the under-the-counter-call-the-police button, grab my gatorade, pay with correct change, and am out the door clipping on my body bag and in the same motion I'm hitting the sidewalk squirting gatorade in my mouth, I think it only takes me an extra 50 seconds or so to get a drink now, if there is no line my heart rate doesn't even go down. Took my scarf off at the height of speed, was too hot, but then after 15 minutes, I was glad I had it again, I think it would be deadly to run at 5 celcius without a scarf. Instead of doing the whole half marathon, I turned right on Ostpreussendamm, but those sidewalks are too uneven and dark to really run hard, by the time I find a 2-hour lit path home through Berlin it will be light out when I run in the evenings, current fall-of-darkness is 5:20 p.m. here in Berlin.

02:07:00 - Had a new Jollins track (Part_3_Live_Club_Mania_Bulgaria_September_2007) which has nice beats up to one hour, fits well to my MP3 listening programming: 1 hour hard running, then gas station drink, and after that a steady educational run listening to Champs-Elysees and History of China lectures, very nice. I started running at 5:25 just after it got dark, can't wait to run in the light again, will be able to run faster, especially after the one-hour mark where the streets are less-well lit. Legs were pretty broken down again but felt ok the next day, need to make this 2 hour half-marathon a standard, once-a-week run with a couple 3-hour runs and perhaps a 3.5 hour run in April, then two weeks off before the marathon in may, that's the plan.

02:10:00 - Running home from work via Buckower Chaussee and Baseler Str. is like going from New York to Cincinnati via Dallas and Seattle, I did about 45 minutes of Jason Jollins, hard running then got into a pace and listened to Champs Elysees for awhile then listened to two Chinese history lectures (a wonderful story about the "straw boat borrows arrows"), it is nice to have a 1 GB MP3 player now so I can listen to a full program as I run, amazing that 5 years ago I was trying to run with a cassette player--times have changed. So basically it was a good run and I had "leg break down" right at 2 hours. This is basically what happens to me in the marathon at 30K and I want to keep running longer and longer runs until I push this breakdown so it happens at 03:59:59. That's my goal this year. I didn't wear sweat pants but am glad I wore a long sleeve running shirt (UCA shirt Pete gave me) and my sweatshirt, and scarf. I just wear my head hugger thing which is fully warm enough and is the solution to keeping sweat out of your eyes for hours. Nice run, felt great afterwards.