04:14:28 - It was perfect weather for a marathon right from the start, a little chilly without your plastic wrap-up but when you took if off you were ready to go. I got off to a good start, found a groove with Jason Jollins in my headphones (hour-long track, "live at crobar") and really enjoyed just floating on top of the thousands of runners, moving to the tunes, I think Jason Jollins wrote his music for marathons, every kilometer or so a new beat groove, repetive but migrating music. I had a strong, comfortable pace going and was repetively surprised how fast my split times were: a 54:07 at 10K and a 01:56 at the half marathon. (I was expecting a 02:10:00 half marathon or so.)


I noticed the 4:00 balloons at 26K and stayed with them till 32K at which point I was prepared for the breakdown (my breakdown is always the point of my longest training run, i.e. 3 hours), but unlike other marathons I regained my energy at 36K again and actually ran offensively with stride despite sore knees and hips. At 40K I looked at my watch and it had just flipped over 04:00:00, so doing a couple calculations in my head, I realized that I could beat my second-best time (04:15:56) so I ran hard to the finish, really felt the best I ever have on the last stretch down Unter den Linden. The Brandenburg gate is SUCH a nice thing to see when you run the Berlin Marathon and it pulled me through, I sprinted to the end and beat my second best time by over a minute. Nice! It was a wonderful run and a wonderful day, I surprised myself this year with less-than-normal training yet a decent time. I feel with the right training (a number of 2 and 3 hours runs the month before the marathon) I will be able to get under 4 hours next year.



Today was also a World Record day: Haile Gebrselassie had predicted before the race that he would beat the world record, and then he did it by getting a 2:04:26, beating the world record by 29 seconds.

00:40:00 - Calves have been tight ever since my 2.5 hour wall run on Friday so did a quick run home today, then a hot bath afterwards and lots of stretching. They feel much better now but need to keep stretching. Weather for Sunday shows sun, clouds and rain and 18 degrees Celcius, perfect actually. Need to buy my victory pack of juice, etc. for after the race and then should be ready. Mentally 100% ready, physically 80% (could have done a lot more longer runs this summer), but excited to do another marathon, will probably bring my camera, just checked it and it still works, amazing, has already done two marathons. 3 more days! Can't wait.

02:30:00 - Today took off from work about 5:30 and took the first street south and just kept running south until I "ran out of Berlin" at which point I turned west and ran along where the Berlin wall used to separate the Western city from the surrounding East German countryside. It's been 18 years now since the wall came down, and the run was full of wonder and discovery. After running for almost *2 hours* along the cut in the trees and past the houses where the wall used to run I realized looking at a posted map that the distance I had run was only about 2 (two) percent of the total coverage of the wall (!), it's then that you get a sense of the sheer megalomania, paranoia, and ill will it took to THINK of building a wall around a city of this size and then ACTUALLY DOING IT. The area that was once the wall has turned into a playground for kids (saw a capture-the-flag game going), a wonderful route for riding bikes and place for locals who live next to the route to go on LONG walks with their dogs, etc. I saw about 5 serious runners, guys that are 1.5 feet taller than I am with super-long legs and spiked, rainbow-shaded running glasses that make them look like racing hornets, guys who will be getting in the finish line around 02:40 or 02:50 next Sunday. Funny, in the city, runners never greet each other here, but out on the outskirts it seems to be mandatory courtesy, like being in a club of "people who run way out". I felt a bit more broken down than my last 3 hour run, but that was the LAST LONG RUN of my training season, time to rest up and do some half-hour jogs or something, and then get psyched for SEP 30!
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03:10:00 - The first of two LSD runs this week (Long Slow Distance) to prepare for the marathon in 12 days. Today was the longest (will do a 2-hour run on Thursday), took off east again up and along the Delfter Ufer / Teltow Kanal, into East Berlin via Teltow (but can't tell where the border was anymore really), got out to the bottom of the Plänterwald and started up along the Spree river, beautiful running, asked a guy how to get to the Archenhold Observatory and he gave me a concerned look and told me it was AT LEAST 2 kilometers up the path (I didn't tell him I was jogging to Steglitz and it was on my way), anyway so finally go there and had a silent moment thinking about Einstein giving his Theory of Relativity speech there for the first time in 1915, something that eventually changed the world, then it was up the river as it started to get dark, first time I got a close look at Molecule Man, a 1999 sculpture by the American artist Jonathan Borofsky and ran by the mini Twin Towers of Berlin, then on up the Landwehrkanal, and AGAIN didn't see where the wall was coming back into West Berlin, it's very hard nowadays, the two sides of Berlin just kind of smear at the border now, then got up to Potsdamer Platz and then ran down a night-lively Potsdamer Str. towards Innsbrücker Platz (detected the "fragrance of marijuana" three times down that street -- seems to be drug of choice for a late-summer Berlin evening) and then clipped on home, had a decent slow marathon pace the whole way. This was my first night run since February, fun! Knees began reporting pain at 2:30 but then were ok again at 2:45, a good sign, legs are not really that sore now which is a REALLY good sign. A VERY nice run tonight!
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01:30:00 - Two weeks to M-Day so I did a longer run, hope to do a 2-hour and a 3-hour in the next two weeks with at least 3 days rest before the marathon, see if I can get that in. Took off east today and then up Britzer Damm and Hermannstr. into central Neukölln (ran across the Umlauts in the "o" in Neukölln, it doesn't get much more central than that), then rounded the corner and saw the 18th century Moschee right near the airport and then the C-47 Bomber that participated in the Berlin Air Lift, interesting behind it were two (unused) baseball fields. Then ran along side the Tempelhof airport building, a friend told me the other day that it is the longest (something) building in Europe (stone?) and running along side it for 8-10 minutes I realized that it IS huge (1.2 KM says wikipedia). Then took off down Boelckerstr. and for the first time ever I went through the Manteuffelstr. tunnel, funny I never discovered that on my runs trying to make it over the autobahn in 2006. Then it was the standard 2006-run home down Bessemerstr. I got back into my sprint-jog-run routine again, had some decent sprints. I'll be doing this route again.
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01:00:00 - Decided to run a longer way home and ended up running through Alter Park in Alt Templehof, which is part of a chain of parks (Bosepark, Kleiner Park, Alter Park and Franckepark) which still have ponds that were part of the moat surrounding the village of Alt Templehof (founded 1247).
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00:40:00 - Rained all day but had cleared up by the time I ran, legs were surprisingly sore from running on Friday, good that started back running now, need to really get back up to speed, am still a bit sick though, but a good run clears out your sinuses, I would be an unpopular doctor: you're sick? then take your jogging clothes to work and run home, next! Once I get my power back I will start doing Insulaner hills.

00:40:00 - Well, I finally got back running, didn't let the WHOLE month slip by, thought I would be more kaputt than I was but ran quite well, even with kind of a cough/cold, had a steady run, have a new job which is much closer to home so run was only 40 minutes but for the next runs I could do 20 minutes of hills at insulaner to make a full hour, would be a nice after-work workout, three full weeks till the marathon, plan to run sunday morning and then Mon/Wed/Fri this week home from work.

00:45:00 - Good run, felt strong on the hills but they wear me out, good training.

01:35:00 - Good run, haven't run in awhile, listened to 3.5 mythology lectures.

01:35:00 - Nice pace, good run, felt good afterward, am 74.5 kilos now.

01:50:00 - Light ran, down pobile nice pace...

01:35:00 - Right after the big rain.

01:35:00 - Good run, solid.

01:35:00 - Finished up a nice set of six runs these two weeks. Fun to run on the other side of the street, totally new scenery.

01:30:00 - I remember the summer of 2004 (when I got my 04:02) during training in the summer I would pass bikes on the bike path, a cool feeling, well today trucking over the Westhafen bridge I passed a rather hefty lady pedaling her bike into the wind, nice, she got me going back down the bridge though. Nice run, at the in from Rathaus Steglitz had a nice clippy pace.

02:00:00 - Ran 20 minutes then it started to rain with a bit of thunder and lightning so stopped at the Westhafen S-Bahnhof for about 20 minutes till it cleared up, then ran on, felt good today, at times very strong but not strong to end, lots of starting and stopping as I took a turn up as far as Podbielski U-Bahnhof and then back down, felt really good after run, first time I work no bandaids and my feet feel fine, no new blisters, oh and forgot my belt so just ran with all my important stuff in a bag in my hand, worked well, might do that in the future, don't really need to have both hands free anyway.

01:35:00 - Was tired, started out with a slower pace, but didn't feel beat up in the middle and by Rathaus Steglitz was in a step-step pace again, pretty strong.

01:45:00 - Was hot, stopped twice for water, shoes didn't give me any NEW blisters, went a new way home, walked a bit after getting drinks, was tired in general today, weighted 54.5 after run.

01:30:00 - New shoes, had bandaids on was better, no real speed.

01:30:00 - New shoes again, wore them REALLY tight this time and my feet felt 90% good, hurt a bit at the end: bandaids practically all came off, had four blisters on right foot, need to get some better bandaids, was tired, not a strong run but good to be out there.

01:30:00 - New shoes, small blisters again, have to tie shoes very tight, probably wear bandaids.

01:30:00 - New shoes, small blisters, always remember to break them in, tie them tight.

01:40:00 - Old shoes last time, shoplift.

04:40:10 - - ran a 04:40:10, exactly as I thought I would
- ran an easy pace from beginning, really enjoyed the run, didn't have a breakdown at 30K as usual
- the whole city was into it, great support, really positive, fun party atmosphere in the city center, and in the suburbs neighbors clapping and kids holding out their hands or banging pots on the sidewalk
- didn't actually get dark until about 32K so had some sun but was nice and cool, perfect weather

- this course was hilly, not like hillls you can attack but long, slow inclines, like running up the Ranch Road up to the Keefe's, enjoyed the downhills though

- they ran the 1/2 marathon and the marathon runners together, so up until 18K it was packed but then it really thinned out. This made the first part of the race really fun and busy, and the last part you could concentrate on your stride with lots of room, during the second half though the team runners (those only doing 10K for a team of 4) would come zipping by us, rabbits that we couldn't catch)
- most frequent cheer was "Allez! Allez! Allez!" with an intermittant "Hup, hup, hup!"

- lots of double-backs so we got to see the front runners once (see video) and could often see where we would be in 10-15 minutes

- not every kilometer was marked, which I enjoyed, didn't even carry a watch so enjoyed the marathon much more wholistically this time
- at 39K we ran behind a long row of trees which made the air really cold, got the chills a bit and actually started shivering, but, like every marathon, spent the last 2K putting one foot in front of the other until the stadium appeared, then the entrance appeared, then the crowd appeared, and then the finish line appeared, was excellent to finish, felt good after the race as well
- at the end I was running alone for awhile, it was interesting to hear people cheer for me in languages I didn't know (Luxembourgish?), they would even yell out my name since it was printed on my race number, so I got these, "Jumbiloh la hagen Edward!!! lo zheet, zheet, zheet!!!" Who knows what they were saying, but I really appreciated it!
- after finishing I took a shower and headed back up to the stadium to watch the last 15 minutes of runners come in, they were so sporadic that the announcer would pick out particular songs for each person ("Made in Japan" for a Japanese guy who ran in at 05:52:00), then at midnight they played AC/DC Hells Bells which officially closed the marathon.

- INTERNATIONAL: on the train into Luxembourg I met two students from Heidelberg who were doing the marathon, one from Vermont, one from New Mexico, they were going to meet a running friend from Colorado coming in from Portugal, when I arrived I asked a couple how to get to the stadium, they said, "we don't know, we're from Belgium", got on the bus and befriended a man from Peru who spoke good French and hung with him until we got to the stadium, at the pasta party sat next to a guy from Ethiopia with rudimentary English, our conversation: "you fast? / no / you fast? / yes / good luck / good luck"

- MULTI-LINGUAL: people in Luxembourg speak French and German like one language, flipping back and forth, you can speak to them in either language (except for salespeople and supermarket workers where it was pretty much French-only), communicating in Luxembourg is a matter of two people finding the optimal language to speak in. I told a woman handing out the marathon bags, "There's so many languages in Luxembourg," she said, "Yeah, you can always communicate, the only problem is knowing which language to start with."

- MUSEUM: visited the Luxembourg museum, impressive 3 x 3 meter wood carvings of the town and its topology from 1500 to today, definitely worth a visit if you go to Luxembourg, if for no other reason than the beautiful view from the 17th century stone balcony on the 5th floor (see video)

- LUXEMBOURG: In all, I remember Luxembourg as a cool, fun, and very unique place. If you take a trip of Europe, don't leave this little jewel out of your itinerary.

- NEXT MARATHON: Next marathon is Berlin in September, at which I'm going to try to break the 4:00:00 barrier again (Saturday watching the 03:59:00 balloons speed off ahead of me, I don't know how it is going to be possible), then I will be looking for a nice spring marathon to do next year, perhaps Paris (although you have to sign up early) or Hannover or who knows, lots of time to find one!

01:40:00 - Nice run but not ready like I am for the Berlin marathon.... (above write about getting green lights)...

01:30:00 - Cut shoes, worked well.

00:30:00 - Had dried shoes from rain last time, was cutting into my foot.

1:30:00 - I had a good run home from work again today, ran through pouring rain the whole way, the first rain in weeks and everyone in the city seemed happy, people riding their bikes with backpacks basically through a showering downpour. People walking through the rain without an umbrella. Where I stopped to get my apple and ice tea, the Turkish owner communicated to me that I should wash my apple in the water pouring off the awning outside above his door so I did which made him smile, two teenage girls at a bus stop cheered me on, a soaked bum on a bench (probably first bath since the last rain) yelled out at me "nice weather isn't it!" and I sprinted off the sidewalk right into the middle of a huge puddle on Kudamm (main shopping street) dousing two women shoppers which made them scream and laugh. Everybody was soaking wet in this warm rain. What a fun run!

1:30:00 - Nice run home but not getting in first gear yet, bought my apple and ice tea after an hour which is perfect, really is refreshing (Braeburn apple) and I can use the energy.

1:30:00 - Run the fast way home, interesting: started out fast till S-Bahn bridge (25 minutes) then powered down, ran steady but slower till Spichernstr. where I got the grove and had a good pace going, so strong that I eventually had to slow down because was breathing so hard, got an apple and ice tea at Stubenrauchstr., finished eating those and then had power the rest of the way. 17 more days.

1:45:00 - Much slower run, was worn out from the run on Tuesday. Took a new way: in Tiergarten instead of turning toward Zoo went straight down over Zoo bridge, past Microsoft and then made my way back to Spichernstr. At the university the bikes are like a school of sharks, weaving in and out. Ran hard for the first 20 minutes, passed a pretty fast jogging couple. Lacking the energy to run fun and fast though.

01:30:00 - Hmmm, timewise I was very fast today, only felt that way at the end coming up Münsterdamm. Bought an apple and ice tea at the little fruit shop at Stubenrauchstr. and Bundesallee, nice sweet Braeburns! I'm just glad to be able to run again, my back does not hurt at ALL when I run, amazing. I NEED to run every other day up until the marathon to be able to have the stamina to run 4.5+ hours. Luxembourg with its hills is not going to be an easy marathon and with all of my out time in the last 5 weeks (sick, back), I lost a lot of momentum.

01:40:00 - Last week after I run, stepped out of the shower and WHAM, back problems where back again. I couldn't walk straight for a week, went to the physiotherapist and have six physiotherapy appointments, went to two and learns some good, simple stretches I can do. I think it comes mainly from sitting all day. Well, I ran home today (back hurt today) but WHILE I ran I felt nothing, felt totally fine. After running it started to hurt again. Crazy. ONE month to go to Luxembourg, still haven't entered the reality phase yet.

01:35:00 - Hadn't run in a week, decent run. On Sunday I met an old friend and.

01:40:00 - First run in almost three weeks, was out with a cold for a week and then threw out my back coughing (I'm 40). Back felt fine running actually, in fact it feels better running then in the office getting up and down out of the chair. Anyway, so that is over and now I have 5 weeks to train (hopefully 3x a week) for the Luxembourg marathon on May 19th. I always run the same route home which means no surprises which is actually nice, I know when I have to pay more attention to traffic, I have a good feeling when lights change, etc. I read an article about "Safety First When Running" and I thought it would be about the dangers of city running, but its main point was that you shouldn't run alone in the country or where there are no people. I've only had three incidences with growling dogs coming at me in the last two years (one dog was chained to his owner's table where he and his family were dining on a sidewalk cafe and the stupid, pig-headed dog dragged the table for a foot or so knocking over glasses and flower vases, etc. -- sweet), but if I'm going to have an incidence with a dog, I would rather there be people (witnesses) around then it be me and the dog (and perhaps his stupid owner) in the middle of nowhere. Long live the city.

01:27:00 - Haven't run in awhile, calf was sore, was tired, but ran fairly hard, got my best time home today. Stayed light pretty much the whole time. Getting funner to run. 8 weeks or so to the marathon so it is about time I have some stamina in long runs. Still weigh about 77-78, would like to get that down to 73 but I think that will happen when I regularly run 3-4 times a week up to the race. Fun run today.

01:39:00 - That was my 10th run home this year. No hat from beginning, dark half way home. Ran last stretch strong. Schlossstr. is almost too crowded to run on before 8 P.M. when the stores close. Had half Jason Jollins and half Champs Elysees on my MP3 player, nice mix. Nice run but not particularly strong. Need to eat a constant diet of bananas and noodles.

01:36:00 - Left work at 4:20 P.M. (thanks to VPN) so this was the first all daylight run home from work this year. In fact I got a glimpse of a brilliant sunset running across Berlinerstr. It started getting dark just as I got back. Didn't really have a lot of energy today, obvious that I'm online doing one run a week. But I didn't ever really break down, I just slowed the pace much earlier and kept it constant. Finished strong last half kilometer.

01:36:00 - Ran strong, was a fun run... ran as fast as the woman, hard keeping up to save face.

01:40:00 - Felt better than Monday's start-up-again run. Wasn't that cold which is good for running.... green windows, moon and planet...

01:40:00 - Long time no run, was a bit under the weather the past week, a little cough about 95% recovered so felt a little weak running but it was good to be out again. I signed up for the Luxembourg marathon which is a great incentive (you HAVE to train, in fact when I signed up I had to check a box that stated I had "properly trained for the challenges of the race"). Go out at 5:35 this afternoon (thanks to VPN) so was able to run at least the first 40 minutes in daylight then it became the the usual dark run which is also cool. Need to do lots of these runs before running is really fun again, was pretty much broken at the Spree bridge and by Ernst Reuter Platz things started to hurt. Need to do hills this weekend as well.

01:40:00 - Another nice, steady run up until the Spree again where I saw below on a path a team of about 8 guys all jogging in unison along the river, nice. After that I kept a good pace pretty much all the way home, got home a little quicker than usual which means I really did run faster, never got really beat like the first couple times. It was kind of cold out tonight, had to keep my hat on fully the whole time, even started snowing for about 15 minutes starting at Kudamm. Back hurt a bit, need to do exercises for that, it's a bit hard to start up fast but after I get going I don't feel it really. First run in a week, amazing how fast a week goes buy without a run.

01:45:00 - Nice run tonight, the first one where I felt I had a good pace the whole way, in the previous runs after my breakdown point (always about 50 minutes) I would try to do sprints and recovers but could never keep a pace after that, tonight I concentrated on my SPAB (sustaintable pace after breakdown) and kept a good one, you have to go fast enough so you get an aerobic workout but not too fast that you have to stop or slow down.

01:45:00 - Since January 21 the days are getting longer so night runs are on their way out, in fact I started at 6:10 p.m. tonight and just an hour earlier the horizon was still a light blue. Was in full gear: sweatpants, sweatshirt, hat, hat got kind of hot after awhile but it's still too close to 0 degrees not to have it. Didn't have lots of energy tonight but kept a clippy pace going all the way to Ernst Reuter platz, then did fast/slows from there to home. So my pattern is to run at a clippy fast pace until I hit a "breakdown point" which is usually in about 50 minutes, then I switch to running sprint/recover/sprint/recover, I only sprint far enough to where I start to feel broken down again, then go slow till I recover and repeat. That was the last day I run down Goßlerstr. from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz, those neighborhood streets are a house of mirrors: it's like running along a piece of spaghetti trying to find your way off the plate, and although it's a nice neighborhood, in the dark there's too many hazards: uneven sidewalks, construction, just too many streets, saw a lot of cozy little restaurants though and a cool dance/aerobic studio with the whole wall that faces the street made out of one solid glass pane, great advertising -- you can't help but stop and watch 20 women bouncing up and down to a pop beat throwing their arms all over the place in quasi-unison, it's like a huge-screen-reality-TV. Feel relatively sore now, still weigh 78 (down from xmas-weight-83 but need to get to marathon-weight-73). Need to make these home-from-work runs a 3-time-a-week affair for a couple weeks so that running for 2 hours is fun again.

01:50:00 - Was a cold evening to run home from work, got out the door at about 7:15 this time with sweat pants and hat (NECESSARY in the icy wind -- ZERO celcius, i.e. 32F), but there is nothing like being in a left-brain dominant programming cloud all day, then stepping out the door into the cold night, slip Jason Jollins beats into your ears and then sprint out into the icy darkness and through the busy city. I can feel my left brain say, "Whoa, this is not for me!" and take a rest and my right brain wakes up and starts taking in all the impressions and sights and sounds and smells, the rhythm of running, the beats, I like how the sounds and sensations of the city mix in with the music-- running over the subway grates as you hear the roar of a subway rush by underneath your feet shooting warm air up all around you, or hearing a distant approaching siren cadence into the beats of your music and then fade back out. I concentrated on the "stay in the air" metaphor of running, I get this from a picture of the two top Kenyans who one the Berlin marathon one year, the picture showed them BOTH with BOTH feet IN THE AIR. The trick is to keep your contact with the ground quick and snappy, knees pumping. I had this rhythm going all the way to Ernst Reuter Platz, then I was aerobically finished and my legs were worn, too. That was a good workout! I need to remember that one. In fact, I'm typing this on Friday morning and I didn't run yesterday as I had planned simply because my legs weren't done "being sore" yet. May run tonight (Friday). I really want to get thin and fast again. That is such a great feeling. Need to stretch more too, even on the days I don't run.

00:40:00 - Want to do more hills this training year so today I ran toward the only hill there is around here, the Insulaner with the observator on top, it was rainy, wet, sloshy, and the hill just killed me, three times, I was aerobically gone, really huffing and puffing at the top, I could hear the hill laughing as I putted over at crest, "Man, you be outta shape!" But I ran my three times and then ran back home, nice to get out and start the hill-training season. I have the feeling by the end of March I'll be doing that hill loop 10x fast. We'll see.

01:50:00 - Chatted with Pete this morning and he has been running so much that I got inspired and in a whim took my running stuff to work. After work at 7:20 P.M. I was outside, running down Afrikanischestr. with Jason Jollins on the mp3, cool night air blowing on my face, ran past where the French military used to be stationed. I ran off like I always did this summer, pretty fast, and soon realized that I don't have the same energy as in summer, but I held a nice pace, it's fun to run at night. And get this, so in the last couple days I have been deciding whether or not I should run the Luxembourg marathon, and all of a sudden I pass Luxemburgerstr.! And I'm running at night and Luxembourg is a night marathon: What a sign! I need to sign up. What a way to train for a night marathon: run at night. I really don't have much choice if I am going to get a couple runs in each week, and the WHOLE way home was well lit, and after I got out there it was fun. It will be more fun when I am in shape but that will come in about 10 more runs like this. No hills really (except a little incline going up the S-Bahn bridge), but I had two speeds going for most of the run: either high stepping medium or a sprint. Should be a bit sore tomorrow but it is a good feeling that running home from work is feasible even in winter. We'll see if the weather stays as nice as it has been (ran in running pants and a sweatshirt, a little cold and windy waiting for the street lights, but other than that a nice temperature to run, 6 degrees Celcius or so.

00:50:00 - Ran fairly constant at the beginning, still noticably out of shape, way too much breathing, had my new Jason Jollins download though "OceanDrive" perfect for a 50-minute run, areas of near silence where you have to keep your own pace, then he'll bring in a beat again that you can hook into, around the end of the 50 minute run, a guy on the starts chanting the phrase "minimal thoughts", sometimes I think Jason makes these for running. That's prefect. The best part of the run, though, was passing a little 8-year-old kid running with his brother and Mom, I looked at him and gave him a solid "thumbs up", which made him break into an ear-to-ear smile. That's awesome. Funny though, very few people walking today, almost all joggers out.

I'm been trying the "riding a bicycle" metaphor trying to keep my knees up and legs pumping inspite of feeling so sluggish. It's great to get out and run again though. Weighed 83 kilo on January 1st and today I weigh 77. Amazing, I simply pretty much stopped eating anything of substance: I eat salads, yogurt, drink Salsa tea with apple juice, coffee, little bowls of granola cereal, little pieces of cheese with bread, I find once I just stay hungry for a day or two, I don't really get hungry and am satisfied with very little. I even ran on an empty stomach today. Pete mentioned again how hill work is important, I believe that and need to find some hills around here, going under the bridge today and then up the incline back to the path I realized, yeah, this is when your legs get a workout. I need to incorporate the planetarium hill into a run, like run up and down it ten times or something, also need to start exercising, just getting stronger is important.

00:50:00 - Hadn't run since the October 8th marathon and I was STIFF stretching. And running was not run, felt very unnatural, body asking "what are we doing?" Say Marcos and Antonia on a New Year's walk on the way out and Jan and Karen on the way back, lots of people out walking on the first day of the year and lots jogging. One guy was running along carrying his Nordic Walking sticks: that's called "Nordic Running". Felt good after the run, but legs were sore three days later. Want to do a spring marathon so need to get a constant running schedule going here in these dark months, perhaps some morning running.