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:
When you get back, take care in running the hills
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cougar26jan26,0,323028.story
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.
Thanks for that, Jeff. Still up for Pasadena?
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.
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
EEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!
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 . . .
To Write Wife,
Ha.
Ha.
Jeff,
The nerve pain sounds ugly.
What kind of treatment are you getting?
John
Post a Comment