All By Myself.

Hard to be sure
Sometimes I feel so insecure
All by myself
Don't want to be all by myself anymore

What a bit of cold weather and stiff winds brings out?  Nothing.  Nobody.  It's amazing how the paths along the Charles and the sidewalks around the harbor are now pretty much deserted.  Vacant of most walkers, runners and bicyclists now that the temperatures have dipped south of the 30's.  I'm "all by myself" you could say.  Well, sing anyways.  OK, for all of those who don't get this musical reference (I don't blame you if you don't as it is going back a ways) it is the power ballad "All by myself" released by Eric Carmen in 1975 (thanks to my wife Jen for coming up with this one).  Who is Eric Carmen?  Again, I don't blame you if you have no idea.  He only gave us such great songs as "Marathon man"- 1977, "Make me loose control"- 1988 and "Hungry eyes"- 1987.  Alex, I'll take absolutely useless music trivia for $300 please.  "What movie was the smash hit "Hungry eyes" featured in?"  Seriously though, when the weather is nice it is jam packed with people getting in all kinds of outdoor exercise.  Kind of like sardines in a can.  Warmth + sardines.  Eww, like totally gross.  Gag me with a spoon.  Grody to the max!  Barf me out!  I know, enough already with the valley girl talk- thinking of those 80's songs just made me do it!  When the weather gets cold and windy though, you can hear the crickets.  There is hardly anyone out and about.  Actually, you cannot hear the crickets as they have all died off due to the cold.  Sorry.  It's a circle of life thing.  You do come across a couple of other die-hards here and there but it is pretty much wide open the entire way.  So much so that I want to run on the left hand side of the path instead of the right.  I know, "wow, he is such a rebel".  Well, I haven't mustered up enough courage to do it yet.  Hey, you never know when a bicyclist is going to come up from out of no where.  Just trying to think of their safety.  Yep, that's me.  "Mr. Safety".  Ha!

I ended up going into Boston yesterday morning to get in a long run to boost my miles for the week.  I finished the run with 13.2 miles and a weekly total of 27.1 miles.  I have to say that that morning run was pretty lonesome just like my weekday nightly runs.  I have to break out into song for a moment...  "All by myself, don't want to be...".  Yesterday was pretty cold.  30 degrees with winds gusting at 25 mph which made the real feel at a balmy 20 degrees.  Special note to the folks at Weather Bug and the Boston Museum of Science: You may want to have maintenance take a look at your anemometer as it is reporting zilch, notta, zero, nothing.  I found that out the hard way yesterday.  There was no wind when I left my house.  But boy, when I got off the train in Boston, there was wind.  Again, gusting to 25 mph.  Silly me, I wore shorts based on Weather Bug reporting no wind.  Silly, silly me!  I have since switched over to the Seaport Hotel station since that is accurately reporting the wind.  I kind of like these conditions though.  Peace and quiet and cold temperatures which make it exhilarating to run.  Gives me a pep in my step.  Sounds good to me. 

Thank you to everyone who has donated to my Boston Marathon Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles fundraiser!  I appreciate the generosity of all the donors.  If you would like to make a donation please visit my fundraising page.

I'll be posting soon about the patient who I've been matched up with as part of the patient partner program.  He sounds like a very active 9 year old and I can't wait for our families to meet at the Miles for Miracles kick-off event coming up in the beginning of December.

The answer to the trivia question: "Ghost" released in 1990.  Congratulations to everyone who got it correct. 

Until next time, keep on runnin'!