me vs. the handsome cab

I usually try to do my long runs on Saturday, but I work a Thursday-Sunday shift, and there’s no real reason why I can’t do ’em on Fridays. So that’s what I did today … should allow me to get in a quick 5K on Sunday.

Just got back from 19.7 miles in the park. 54:02 (8:57 pace), 57:01 (9:27) and 58:02 (9:37) for each of the first 6.0273 mile-loops, then 15:21 for the last 1.7153 mile southern lower loop (8:56).

That last lower loop is in the southern tip of the park, by the Ritz Carlton and the new Time Warner Center and all the tourists. As I ran along this handsome cab (a horse-drawn carriage) came along side me. Usually these cabs go pretty slow, but this horse going along at a pretty good trot. Of course, no way was I going to let it pass me.

I’m sure the tourists in the cab probably didn’t appreciate this sweaty, snotty guy running alongside them — but at least it was a family, not a couple on some romantic trip. I only ran with them for a few minutes — then the cab slowed — but it was a good way to push my pace after running 18 miles.

I read that after the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens barnstormed around the country, racing horses (and dogs) to make a living. Pretty pathetic the country couldn’t give him his props, and I guess demeaning as well. But it must have been magnificent, too, in its own way … racing against a horse.