See it. Hear it. Smell it.

I ran 8.5 miles on Saturday. Without stopping or walking (aside from quick water breaks whenever I passed a fountain). 8.5!

Had someone told me 3 months ago that by August I’d be able to run 8.5 miles, I would have laughed at them. Yet on Saturday, that is exactly what I did. And you know what’s more? It felt good. I felt like I could’ve kept going. I didn’t because my training schedule has me increasing my mileage by 10% each week to prevent injury. But I’m not worried about the 9 miles I have to run this weekend. Or the 11 miles I have to run next weekend. Or the 13.1 miles I have to run on September 16. For the first time, I’m confident that I really can do this.About  a month ago I stopped running with my iPod. It wasn’t a conscious decision. The battery died one day as I was about to start a run. I was only planning to do 3 miles and figured I would survive without it for just one run. I haven’t run with it since. I find my runs go better when I can set my own rhythm rather than trying to keep pace with a song. (Anyone else have that problem?)

I also notice a lot more when I run without music or podcasts and when you live in Brooklyn, there is ALWAYS something to notice. Here are some sights, sounds, and smells (yes, smells) from my recent runs.

• A man in a kilt. Not of the Scottish variety. More like this.
• A sax player playing “Over the Rainbow”
• Charcoal and burgers
• Kites
• Kids with water balloons
• Horse manure (saw and smelled)
• A middle-aged woman learning to roller skate
• A young guy jogging with a basset hound (so wrong)
• A woman with a dog in a reusable grocery bag
• A man running backwards
• Loads of VIBRAMS! (And one guy in straight up bare feet…)

And the best sight by far: a man running and juggling. Seriously. The guy was going faster than I was and was juggling 3 tennis balls while he ran. I can’t juggle while standing still so I was pretty impressed.