Philadelphia ; 3 days to go

Well, it's getting close now. We arrived in the State last Wednesday to work for a week before heading up to NYC. Flew into JFK after an 8 hour layover in Tokyo. A good way to go - 10hrs to Narita, 8 hour layover, 13 hour to JFK. Legs felt OK at the end helped by the layover and wearing skins. Couldn't help the cankles though, but they disappeared after a day or so.

Did 15 minutes on the sweatbox of a gym at the Hilton JFK on Wednesday evening just to get some blood flowing again. Followed that up with another 30 minutes the next morning. I was wringing out the shorts after that one! We got a cab to Penn Station, NY to get the Amtrak down to Philadelphia where we're working for a week. Had a nice brekky at Zaro's - a large coffee, 2 cinn/raisin bagels and a cranberry muffin, with another two bagels to go. Got down to Philly and into the Sheraton Center City hotel room by 11am.

Spent the afternoon in the office and then hit Kelly Drive for my evening MP hour (map). It was very warm and I felt great with no significant after-effect from the plane trip. Melbourne has the Tan, Perth has the Bridges, Philly has Kelly Drive. The place was swarming with runners of all shapes paces and sizes. Great to see!

Some kind soul has marked the path at quarter mile intervals as well, a handy pace guide. Over here, one has to think of pace per mile, not per k. No-one understands '4-minute k's, I guess just as we don't understand '6:20 miles'. Adding to the oddness, most marathons (including NYC) put timing mats every 5 kms, but have mile markers...

Friday I did a 30 min recovery up to the Schuykill row houses and back.

On Saturday Kim and I had a date with the local running group the Philly runners, meeting at the Rocky statue at the base of the Art Museum steps. Unfortunately I couldn't get anyone at my pace, so it was another solo run ; out in ~4:10's and back at MP. 20k for the last 'long' run and I felt great! Conditions had turned though, it was only 9 degrees. We also had to dodge regatta watchers as we ran past the Schukill row houses, including a classic 'guy carrying oars turning around' incident. I went up the river to Wissahickon reserve and up in that park for a bit before turning back. The leaves are turning here and it was gorgeous. Afterwards we headed for the coffee shop for refreshments... route here.

I woke really early Sunday so just did my 30min recovery on the treadmill - a much better gym than the Hilton at JFK. Sunrise is at 7:30 am here and it was pretty cold to I plumped for the easy option.  Monday half hour easy (4:07) at 6:30am, Tuesday 25 min recovery at 6:30am again and Tuesday evening 45 minutes at MP after work - the last significant run before Sunday. Another 30 minutes Wednesday morning @ 4:05. Kelley Dr is a very scenic place to run, but it's a PITA to get to with all the road crossings in the first mile. Probably do another recovery Thursday am, nothing Friday, and a 20 minute loosener on Saturday (or not!).

 Feeling great - no aches and pains, low HRs, the best I've felt in a taper, hopefully a good sign for the weekend.

Forecast is looking good, if a bit windy, for Sunday - it's going to be sunny 8° with a min of 2° with 16/32kph NNW winds. Forecast - Course