Run Home from the Office

OBJECTIVE
8 mi. @ 8:25/mi.

ACHIEVED
9.77 mi. @ 8:28/mi.

6:45 PM 66° 31% 14 mph

Okay, I've been wanting to try this run for a long time. Ironically, I live a little over 26 miles from the office where I work. There happens to be a Park and Ride for bus commuters a little over half way from my house. For a little less than a year now, I've thought I'd like to park my car at the bus stop, ride the bus to work in the morning then run back to the bus stop after work. I've plotted several different routes to accomplish this. Now that daylight savings time is here and my fitness allows for it, I figured I'd give it a try today.

I was a bit eager at the outset as I wound my way out of downtown. I decided to just let my watch run continuously rather than mess around with stopping and starting it at every traffic light along the way (there ended up being many!). It was a very nice evening and I felt pretty good. A few people that I had talked to about attempting this run in the past didn't think it was a good idea since I'd be running alone and if anything happened there wouldn't be an easy or obvious contingency plan. This is a big part of the reason I hadn't tried this run before now.

The first 5 miles went well. The route was new so I was wide-eyed. The evening was beautiful as the sun was setting. The last 3 miles were tough. It was one long stretch along a "feeder road" (something I didn't know about until moving to Houston 8 1/2 years ago). The shoulder was 4" to nonexistent in some places. The traffic - while only one-way - was moving close to freeway speed. While I didn't ever feel in imminent danger, there were times that the sidewalk did seem the safest of places - especially as a began to get darker.

The smells from ethnic restaurants along the way were great! I also saw and heard a woman playing her guitar and singing on her porch. It was fun.

The shortcomings of the run were the traffic and running on sidewalks. I think I'll try this again but will probably look for alternate routing to keep me on some quieter streets along some sections of the run.

Although the last three miles were particularly tough, I felt great after stretching and driving the rest of the way home. Chalk one up for reducing my carbon footprint today (he said, tongue-somewhat-in-cheek).

PRE RUN
granola bar & water

During the run, I ate 1/2 Clif bar and drank about 16 oz. H2O

POST RUN
SlimFast