Last Run of the (choir) Season.

Last night was the end of choir season.  At  the end of the season, the Maryland State Boy choir hosts a festival that draws kids from all over!  Members of the  Newark Boy Choir,  the Ann Arbor Boy choir and many others have come to Baltimore for this year's fun.  While this is an awesome thing, it means that the usual waiting room is unavailable for the parents.  No biggie for the beginning of the evening, as I had plans to go running, despite my ongoing foot pain.  You heard me right.. Foot pain.  My plantar fasciitis has been quite bad lately.  Bad enough that I even tried wearing the odd boot in bed to see if it would help!

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Despite that, I was all set to run and had plans to meet up with my running partner! 

Lake Montebello and Herring Run Trail, Baltimore MD

Once again it was my turn to drive the boys up to the Maryland State Boychoir practice.  I have been lucky enough to carpool with another parent - which means I only have to drive every other week!    Since I have a couple of hours to kill - it's the perfect time to go for a run!

I thought I would try something different, and research the areas I was going to run.  I am all to aware, that in Baltimore you can be in a wonderful neighborhood, and two blocks later enter a not-so-wonderful neighborhood.   I did a quick google of crime in Herring Run Park and didn't find any recent murders/rapes/assaults. (Hey, in a city like Baltimore, you expect SOME.)  I planned a quick run up to Lake Montebello and the Herring Run trail.  I thought a nice 3-4 miles would be in order for the night.

It was raining and misty, so I ended up overdressed as I had rain-gear on... Then it didn't rain while I ran.

The run itself felt nice.  I kept with my recent plan, and just let my body determine the speed, although I tried to slow it down a bit for mile 2..  The initial run up to the lake from the MSB center was all through nice neighborhoods (nice enough, I probably couldn't afford a house there) and the people nodded their heads back at me when I initiated it. <-- My indicator of whether or not a neighborhood is friendly.

[caption id="attachment_2582" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Picture from http://abikeinbaltimore.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html[/caption]

Running through Baltimore while the choirs sing

Monday nights are normally not a running night for me as my son has chorus practice.   The monday schedule involves ending my work day a tad early, pick the little chorister up from karate, head to his practice in Baltimore (with a side trip of 40 minutes to pick up the car-pooling buddy), sit though practice, then head home (After dropping the car-pooling buddy off.)  I leave for work at 7:45, and get back hoe around 10:30.   Needless to say, I am not going to go run at 10:30 at night.  Call me lazy.

Tonight, I followed through on a better plan than just sitting on my butt while the boys sang.  While I was at home getting some food into the boy (mmmm. Corn Dogs.) before heading off to get the car-pooling buddy, I changed into my running clothes.  I thought that while my son was exercising his voice, I could exercise by  running around Baltimore!  My only real concern was that I didn't know Baltimore.  This gave me a slight level of  fear that I might run into a neighborhood that I had no business being in.  My wife seemed to share this concern as she informed me I WOULD  asked me very nicely if I would call her when I finished running.   Of course I assured her that not only would I do so, but I would also be very careful about where I went. (Though I have to admit, I'm not sure how you tell that you shouldn't be in a neighborhood before you are...)