Bandito

15.7 miles in 2:05

I met Sarah for a long run this morning that happened to coincide with the course of the Oakland Half Marathon. My stiff back put me on notice early in the run, but began to feel better with the activity, as I tried to stick with my mission of pacing 7:55 miles for Sarah, who is three weeks out from Boston.

I really enjoyed the marathon/half marathon course, which I had planned to run legitimately before January got in the way. It was a tour of many lovely and not-so-lovely parts of the Town, highlighted for me (who am I kidding - for everybody!) by running through a flaming arch set up for the occasion in front of The Crucible. Crowd support was great, and people seemed stoked to be running Oakland.

I bailed a little early, at mile 8 of the course and mile 12 or so of my run, to head home for a bit more Silas birthday celebration: the bestowing of his first bicycle. It's a 12" Specialized that I bought from Cycles of Change, a local nonprofit. I removed the pedals and lowered the seat so that Si can "scoot" on it. Not surprisingly to me, he cried when he first saw it, but calmed down a bit after I explained to him that when I was his age, I didn't know how to ride a bike either. He then declared that, even though he didn't like it, he wanted to practice. And, within 30 minutes: "I love my bike!"