I did have some authentic Mohawk Valley adventures on Friday, but Saturdays (today), I like to write about my morning’s run. For one thing, thinking about what I’m going to write sometimes keeps me running. Someone may argue that I can think about what I could write and I wouldn’t have to actually write it — you know, placebo effect. But I don’t think that would continue to work. And I needed extra motivation to run, because I had a dreadful headache this morning. So here I go.
That is, there I went, about 6:30 this morning, shortly after Steven left for work (love it when he has the early shift), enjoying the cool temperature and lack of traffic. I decided to run up Stueben Hill. For one thing, it’s a hill and I want to train on hills for the Boilermaker and DARE 5K. For another, if I get ambitious later I can drive where I ran and see how far a distance I made.
At the beginning I was running right into the sun. Ugh. Not so easy to see straight ahead. That hill is always further away than I think it is. At last I reached it. Now the sun was in a more reasonable position. That is, I was in a more reasonable position in relation to the sun. I accomplish a lot on these runs, but I don’t think I have managed to actually move the sun (split infinitive there, some people don’t like that. Sorry). And of course the hill looked steeper than I had been thinking. They always do. Is that a metaphor for life or what?
I mostly stayed on the road itself, not the soft dirt shoulder. The soft dirt may have been easier on my feet, but I also thought it would be more effort. My headache did not seem as bad now that I was out in the fresh air exerting myself, but I just didn’t feel up to too much effort. That is one reason I like to run distances. Slow and steady. Sometimes you don’t even realize the effort you are making.
It’s nice to run a street you don’t run all the time. Different things to look at. The sidewalk on this road ends right away and it feels like you are running out of town. A nice country road, although not one that takes me home, like in the John Denver song. I watched a little stream next to me. Just a trickle, really. It would stream for a while, then stop and stagnate, as if somebody had put in a miniature damn. I reminded myself not to stagnate, just to make another metaphor.
The uphill goes on for quite some time. I started to feel a little unhappy about it, but sooner than I realized, I reached Highland Avenue, where I could turn off. Perversely, I kept going up. I hadn’t been running all that long, and I intended to go for an hour. I did not want to have to spend too much time circling the streets around my house waiting for the hour to pass. I kept going a little further, then a little further, and finally turned around after 24 minutes of uphill.
It was, now that I think of it, pretty uneventful run. On my way downhill, I passed a lady at her mailbox and called a cheery good morning, which she returned.
“We got a beautiful day,” I said.
“It’s going to be,” she agreed. Actually, I thought it was beautiful right then and was going to be too hot later, but that’s just me.
I felt pretty good about my run, although my headache returned in full force as soon as I stopped. It’s finally going away, as I type this, just prior to five p.m. And I have to say, I’m a little displeased about this post. I think it’s kind of dull. Oh well, you win a few, you lose a few (although I hope I don’t lose a few readers). I ran, I wrote. I’m done.
Mohawk Valley Girl 