Along My Run | 23 Crunch Time

I'm headed to the starting line of my fourth full marathon! It may be a rainy repeat of last year's Illinois Marathon, but I've survived one deluge, so I can do it again.

Here's what's been happening with my running:

March

1. New scenery on today's Rrun, 2. 6 Drops, 6 Miles in the Spring Rain , 3. I'll stop complaining about DST now, 4. Rinse and Repeat , 5. Saturday miles, heading uphill , 6. Many The Miles Today. One down, 19 to go , 7. 19 Down, One to Go, 8. March running

In March, I ran a total of 170 miles, a new monthly PR. I also had weekly PRs of 42 then 43 miles. This was the peak in my marathon training plan (Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1).

So far in April, I've run 123 miles, with lots of great people:




I'll be running with some of them today with the mindset of enjoying the run and being grateful for our abilities to run.

Class of 2016 - Senior Evan

I first met Evan at a Cross Country banquet - when he was in middle school. He's still running and plans to continue in college, at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.



I'm friends with Evan's mother and she prefers black and white photos, so I converted the ones she liked.
This one is also a favorite of mine, and happened to be one of the last photos of the day, when I could tell he was tiring of the whole posing / smiling process (that modeling thing is hard work!). I loved the how the light was catching in his eyes, so I took "just a few more". Evan was so polite through all my crazy requests!






Some photography details:
Shot with my Nikon D600 DSLR with a 70-200mm f/4 zoom lens, aperture set to f4 for all the photos. I have been using this set up for all of the portraits I have been taking over the last 3 years. I get great depth of field and nice bokeh. Post processing done in Lightroom 5.

Fleeting Spring

fleeting (adj) ....passing swiftly; vanishing quickly; transient; transitory

spring blossoms bring bursts of color from the dormant ground
buds emerge from barren branches
color abounds

before lush greenery fills the branched air
the magnolia, cherry blossom and sakura create a veil

petals rain down in the warm breeze,
a fleeting spring,
alive from the ground and in the trees










it is not a metaphor for life? enjoy it while you can.

April 2016 Desktop Calendar - Red Bud

Nothing says Spring like the Red Bud - heart shaped, tiny flowers provide a delicate veil of color through the emergence of green.

To download the April 2016 calendar for free at Box.com, click on the link:
Free April 2016 Calendar - Red Bud