engulfed by the evening shift

In a good way...it's really my best sort of schedule. I guess I'm not a morning person. Left to my own devices, I go to sleep around 2-3 and wake up around 9-10.
Anyway, I did my pushups and core exercises, and ran to and from my 2nd job. Way too slippy to run to my first, but that stuff eventually melted. It was pretty mild today, about +8 when I was running to work. And mucky! By the time I got out at night, though, the sidewalks were pretty much bare, with ribbons of thin ice, but very little slush or snow or anything else. Just bare concrete and smooth ice. And almost no traffic.

It's been pretty miserable since the strike with all these extra cars and extra-frustrated motorists jamming up MY neighbourhood, even the little B-list streets--I've felt caged. To have the asphalt empty was a real treat. I love running on downtown streets with buildings around me...I'm not a fan of traffic lights, but neither am I particularly fond of paths along rivers and canals. I'm grateful that they're there, and I use them a lot, and I would miss them, but the scenery and so forth is largely wasted on me. Take the Philadelphia marathon--my favourite parts are the first bit through downtown and then Manayunk; the park and stretch by the river do not inspire me. I like nature more when it's a little more well-rounded, like dirt/mud trails and decaying deer carcasses and multi-species scat and so forth, like where I ran in Maryland. That was interesting. The Canal, not so much. But stores and houses, which I can peer into, or dumpsters, or just a lot of different little nearby things that go by quickly, that's entertaining.

The temps were cooler tonight, but not enough to make the gusty wind miserable. In fact, that wind seemed mostly behind me; it was invigorating and kept my gait light. I was airborne. It was really refreshing to have all this space around me. I used to spend a lot of time outdoors after dark, just walking or running around, wherever I lived, here, Montreal, Halifax, NB, Seoul, wherever....well, the States kind of broke that habit. Meth and guns. lol. Altough, the two times we lived on post were better. Anyway, I used to clear my head quite regularly in the night expanse, but it's been a while. I felt so happy to be running tonight that I grabbed the dog and we did a few more miles for fun. I hope conditions will be as good tomorrow night. It's been a while since I've actually craved a run this much, which is really sad.

It made me realise that I wanted to qualify for Boston for the wrong reasons. Why do I have to prove myself? I think I had this idea that serious runners qualify for Boston and I felt that I had to justify all the running this way too. Do I really want to be a serious runner?