I wondered if any of my readers missed Saturday Running Commentary, so I thought I would run and comment today. I never ran till after 2, when Steven went to work, but I figured you can do that in the fall.
The trouble with waiting to run is that you’ve got plenty of time to talk yourself out of it, which I almost did. I went to the store to buy groceries instead. As I was pushing the cart back after loading three big bags into my truck, I realized I was happy to be outdoors, because it was such a nice day. Well, self, I thought, there is one good activity that will get you outdoors for a little longer.
Of course, raking leaves is another activity that would get me outdoors and that definitely needs to be done. Still, I’m trying to get back into running and it is not going to be easy due to certain other time commitments I have recently made. I decided to run.
I was not immediately glad I did. Sometimes waiting till later in the day is a good thing: your muscles are not stiff and just waking up, you’ve eaten something nutritious (I hope), OK, that’s all I got. My muscles felt that they had been working enough (only walking, but you know how leg muscles are). My body acted as if it hadn’t been fed in days (like that’s ever going to happen!). I just kept going.
A friend of mine has been mentioning to people lately how I run up the hill to Herkimer County Community College. I have not run that hill in at least a month (too lazy to go downstairs and look it up in my running journal), but I figure if Phyllis is going to be talking about it I’d better get back to doing it. Only not today. I turned in that direction, though, because there are a couple less intimidating hills I thought I might be up to.
Finally I settled on the Unknown Park. I recently learned that it is in fact Brookfield Park, but I am so used to calling it the Unknown, I may continue to do so. There is a pretty good upslope as soon as you turn in. Wasn’t fun. Ran it anyways.
A couple of young girls were walking towards me, but they crossed to the other side of the road when they saw me. That was good, because it put them on left side facing traffic (of which there was none just then). I don’t think they did it to be safe, I think they did it to avoid the crazy old lady (me), but I was glad to see it nonetheless.
As I ran through the path in the woods I stopped to pet an adorable black pug, with the owners’ permission. I think he was just a puppy. He was so wiggly and cute, I ran on feeling refreshed. One more short upslope, I told myself, and then it’s downhill all the way. I felt good about that, because I knew I wasn’t lying. Not like on the Boilermaker when they keep telling you it’s all downhill from here and you know darn well it’s not.
Back on the road, I was going to turn left where it said “No Left Turn” as usual (must be a rebel, after all), but I saw a group of male college students walking in the opposite direction, right side with traffic, of course. I had no reason to think they might say anything rude, yet I did not feel inclined to run right into them. I thought, I never go straight at this intersection, I’ll go straight for once. Not that it was a road less traveled, because I run on that stretch of road all the time going toward the college. Still, a different direction is at least something different.
I stopped to pet two more cute dogs on German Street. They were the shaggy kind, Llasa Apsos or Shih Tsus or something. One backed off, the other was friendly. Then as I ran on the shy one ran after me.
“Now she wants to be petted,” the owner said, with a laugh. I turned around and obliged. “She has to play hard to get,” the owner said.
I ended up running longer than I had run Tuesday or Thursday, so I felt pretty good about that. Other than that satisfaction, though, I felt tired. I managed to spend a little time raking leaves, just because I thought I ought to (I know, I say I never do what I ought to, but I guess once in a while I do). Then I felt beat. Dare I say, too beat to write a decent blog post? Yet I see I am over 800 words. I’ll say today I went for quantity, not quality.
Mohawk Valley Girl 