Week Five - Day Three, Saturday, August 17th

I woke up on Thursday morning, the 15th and my left hip flexor - actually, my whole left leg - was absolutely killing me.  Didn't see much point in going out for the short run and putting it completely out of its misery, and me out of the Marathon. Two days and a significant amount of ibuprofen later, and it felt much better that I decided to tackle my next long run of 10 miles. Good decision on my part, if I do say so myself.

Changed up the course quite a bit. Instead of doing the serpentine course through local streets, which was getting pretty boring (and increasingly difficult to remember where I had to turn at what time), my wife suggested a longer, straighter run, one that she had done while getting ready for the Jersey Girl Triathlon. This one took my straight up OFR past the split with New Hampshire, to Church Road, then over to Todd Road, which brought me back to OFR. Down to Whitty Road, then North Bay to Bey Lea, through the campus of High School North, and back on OFR again. Took a side trip down Lilac, which is familiar territory, to Mapletree, then OFR to home. Nice and simple.

I must say, it has it all: wide shoulders in most places, narrow shoulders in a few areas, no shoulder at all in a couple of spots, which made for a couple of death-defying interactions with the motoring public. Passed lots of houses of worship, which you don't really notice all the time when you're in a car, starting with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, right across Intermediate North Way from the Ocean County Baptist Church. Then right before you get to the Parkway overpass, is Congregation B'Nai Israel, a Conservative congregation. Across the street is, I believe, their former temple, now occupied by Messiah Bible Church at the corner of Whitty Road.

On the other side of the Parkway is the Church of Grace and Peace, one of the larger churches in Toms River. (If you need a cop outside to direct traffic when services get out, you have a large church.) Up a little farther, after the split with New Hampshire, is St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church, which is the parish we thought we were going to attend when we moved to Toms River. (But no! Did you know that you are supposed to go to the parish in your specific geographic area? Neither did we. Instead we go to St. Joe's across town. But that's another hyperlink altogether.)

Making the turn onto Church Road (appropriately named for all the houses of worship that are located along it), I crossed New Hampshire, and passed St. Andrew's United Methodist Church, then hung the right onto Todd Road, with it's impressive selection of McMansions. Back down OFR, passing Grace and Peace again, to Whitty Road. That was not a good idea, since it was getting dark, and the construction made for some interesting moments with cars. Getting to the corner of North Bay, across from the Toms River Veterans Recreation Complex (built on the site of what was the last poultry farm in Toms River) is Trinity Fellowship Church.

What struck me about almost all of these houses of worship is that they all look like they went to the same architect when designing their buildings...very modern, with soaring roofs differing only in where they placed the cross, except the Mormons, who don't put crosses on their buildings. The only exceptions were St. Andrew's, which is a bit older, and Congregation B'Nai Israel, which looks a lot like other temples of their size: brick building, very simple.

For this run, I borrowed the belt that Kim bought before the Historic Half last year. Had space for two small water bottles, and a small pouch, into which I put a copy of my license and a small packet of "Extreme Sport Beans", made by Jelly Belly, which promises "quick energy for sports performance", and contains "carbs, electrolytes, and vitamins B & C." All I know is that they tasted good and seemed to work. During almost all my breaks, except for the first one, I made sure to have a couple of sips of water, and I had a portion of the beans every half hour.

Except for the hip flexor, which actually didn't bother me til about mile four or five, this was a pretty good run, much better than last week. Low humidity, and a slight breeze. I hope next week's run of 11 miles is just as good. But it's still August.

Today's Nike Pep-talker was Ellie Goulding, who congratulated me on doing more miles this week than last.