Thursday, January 24, 2008

Frosty Running in Washington State

Still up near Olympia, Washington visiting family. Daytime temperatures linger in the teens and 20s. I thought the Phoenix Marathon was cold but today I ran 14 miles on chilly backcountry roads. Frost everywhere, horses in the fields standing head down, motionless as marble carvings. Mt. Rainer rose to the east like a huge white triangle. Dogs ran along split-rail fences, barking as I passed. A gray and black cat slunk across a two-lane, asphalt road, ducking under a fence and into a wrecked out-building, watching me warily from behind a board as I loped on.

Though light, traffic was occasionally a hazard. Certain roads are shoulder-free and I zig-zagged from side-to-side seeking the widest shoulder and trying to avoid cruising around a blind corner into a F-150 pick-up pulling a horse trailer.

Running negative splits, I stopped run/walks and picked up the pace for the last two miles. Most of this distance was on a straight away between Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars. A Federal Express panal truck drove past me. The driver waved as Mt. Rainer filled the background behind him.

Afterwards, stretching out in the cold, early afternoon, I realized almost two-and-a-half hours had passed and I had hardly seen a single person. Only folk in pick-ups and SUVs, a gas truck, and a county crew that looked lost.

Still and all, a very nice long run.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you get back, take care in running the hills

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cougar26jan26,0,323028.story

k said...

You're in one of my favorite parts of the country there.

Absolutely beautiful. And the air is clean, clean, clean.

Still - I'd never go in winter. No.

JP Mac said...

Thanks for that, Jeff. Still up for Pasadena?

JP Mac said...

K,

Sunny every day we were there, except the last. But unseasonably cold - teens and 20s and no higher than 40 during the day. I actually had to warm up my rental car to defrost icy an windshield.

A blast from our Windy City past.

But fantastic sea and mountain scenery.

Anonymous said...

yes on pasadena but i first need to lose weight while at the same time recover from a sciatic nerve that has shown its ugly face for the first time in my life. I have never had anything more painful

k said...

EEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

It was very romantic, blogging from an easy chair beside a fireplace, looking out into the sunlight, and knowing it was actually cold on the other side of the window.

I fail to see the problem . . .

JP Mac said...

To Write Wife,

Ha.

Ha.

JP Mac said...

Jeff,

The nerve pain sounds ugly.

What kind of treatment are you getting?

John

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