Greetings from Pennsyltucky

Stinky lousy no good computer gnomes done threw my entry into the internet black hole and now I've to start a frigging new. I can only hope Bill Gates and Steve Jobs get frustrated like this much more often than I am.

OK then, Hello from Pike county PA, just up hill and the road from Milford and Shohola and a few miles from another retiree from the Fire Department at West Point. I may need to do a drop in on him while I'm out here for the weekend.

Whats with the term Pennsyltucky? well thats sort of an inside joke a few of us had in the FD, but it sort of refers to a formerly rural part of PA now being sucked into the oblivion of the NYC metropolitian region. 2 hours from Manhattan and its still considered a reasonable commute. I wonder what some definitions of reasonable are? Still the Water Gap National Recreation area can be bucolic and relaxing; unless your training to run in a marathon then the hills around it are taxing.

Still I'm out here with several things on my schedule. a couple of training runs for the Marine Corps Marathon, dropping one motorcycle off at a shop I've been using for some time to get a oil leak rectified if possible, ride the other motorcycle in a Poker Run sponsored by the Pike County A.B.A.T.E. on Sunday and sit for my brothers two wee puppies, 6 months old and 60+ pounds apiece. Its good to have a cargo trailer sometimes even though motorcycles should be ridden and not trailered when practical.

Well last week I hit a high mileage mark in training of 50 miles and some tenths Oy Vey ist meir. Well now I'm reducing the overall weekly mileage and adding an additional rest interval especially now that I've a few really long runs on line over the next 10&1/2 weeks before the Marine Corps Marathon. I'll have a few really long runs yet, 20 mile range before the marathon. But now I can relax a little too as I adjust my training regimen.

Still I need to remind myself that I'm not running for me. but for those afflicted with a cancer, I'm running to raise funds to help find a cure, to help the families afflicted and to bring hope to others. Yes, I'm running a marathon, but the goal is to finish both a fund raising effort to help others and a race.

I could list statistics of mileages and times I've done in training but that is boring as hell. But let me try to describe my last 10 mile run here in Pike County.

I awoke at 1:30 AM and couldn't fall back to sleep. finally I decided that since I was awake I might as well make use of the energy i had. So I got dressed in my running atire and prepared to run. I walked along the dirt road from my brother's home to the main paved road; There I set my stopwatch and proceeded to run at 2:40 in the morning. Dark may begin to describe the early hours. Abient ligh being reflected off the sky from Haley and Port Jervis and the stars in the sky but not much light as there was no moon in evidence, a dark night it was. Thankfully at that hour traffic is minimal at best and I could run along the shoulder of the roadway. Actually since there was no real traffic to speak of I could run on the crest of the road on the double yellow lines, with my flash light turned off and see well enough to stay in the center of the road.

For almost 3&1/2 miles I followed the road towards the old grand Army of the Republic Highway. What light illuminating my course being filtered by the crowns of the trees crowding the road unless i turned on my flashligh to make my presence more pronounced for the few vehicles travelling at the birthing hours of the day, when the sun hasn't even brought forth the grey predawn light. Still I pressed onward to the west on the older highway towards my next landmark where again I would turn righ and head into darker woods and a narrower road which wouldturn from macadam and pavement to dirt.

The narrowe section of the road was crowded by trees so dense that even the braches intertwined above the road. No light made its way to the road bed at the third hour of the day. In the still darkness of my run the shades of black were subtle and difficult to distingush, a few times I turned my light on to help illuminate my run but still reverted back to the darkness of the natural nigh when I could. I've been told that there are 1000 shades of grey, that could well be true but in the darkness of night the unaided eye can become accustomed to a few degrees of darkness which allows you to move upon a wide trail unaided by artificial lights. This is some thing rarely realized by many of us anymore, still I am glad to have experienced it.

Finally I make my turn back onto the road I had originally started upon. still the only sounds were thoseof my own foot falls, the squishing of my sweat soaked running shoes and the occasioal dog barking his or her disagreement with my all too early morning run. At last I reach the point where I started. It was now the final quarter of the fouth hour of the morning, I had covered but 10 miles and it felt inexplicably longer. The night expanded the distance and time while still etching away at its ever steady pace seemed but to hold still for the run.

After returning to my brother's abode and letting the dogs out into the yard with the slowly lightening skies. I was done. The shower felt more refreshing than many in a longwhile and Morpheus the diety of sleepvisted upon me to help renew myself for the day that would unfold just a few hours on.

Ok so much for attempting to express what a midnight/run is like maybe not my best effort but I'm not a professional writer and I'm trying to relay emotions into a physical reality difficult to express. still being back at the "Scene of the Crime" sort of makes it easier to replay in my mind what occured and transcribe it.

So for now, Have a good night, I wish you a safe weekend and an easy one as well.

Q