Shattered Expectations

Met up with the PhillyRunners today at the PMA. Blue skies, a little breezy, but the kind of sunshine that makes you want to spread out in the grass and take a nap. I was expecting to run 8.5 miles around the "loop." Surprisingly, a few folks decided to take a different route through Fairmount Park that would cover roughly the same distance but be much more scenic. We went counterclockwise to start, through Lemon Hill and over to N Concourse via the Girard St Bridge. Along the fire roads in Belmont Shanley mixed things up a bit when she led us up a fairly steep hill. The portion of the run along these fire roads was extremely enjoyable, the dampness and shade of the trees feeling pretty comfortable after being in the sun over asphalt for a while. Then it was back to Kelly Drive, and I always get really disoriented when I come down the steps after Strawberry Mansion Bridge. Instead of ending at the PMA, I continued on to Locust St along the river with a new acquaintance, Mike, really just for kicks. He's a fellow Fishtowner and hopefully we'll get some morning runs in. I mapped the route, but the portion in Belmont gets fuzzy because you can't see the trails from the sky. In total it was somewhere between 10 and 11 miles in 1:30 including stops. Everything felt really great today, only some very minor stiffness in my calves. I'm glad I got out to the PMA, and I'm glad that we changed things up a little.