OWL-DRAGON

Weekend Running

This part of the Northeast is having a preview of spring and we are having the warmest days since late December. Friday’s trail run was quiet and uneventful. I enjoyed the winter woods which will green up in just a couple of weeks. Other then a couple of soggy spots the going was easy and the trails appear to have been freshly marked so I was more adventurous and took a couple of detours.

Saturday was just perfect. A daytime moon looked down as I started out just past noon. I had new shoes on. I seriously considered a different route because I knew if I took the nature trail thru Haverford I would encounter a lot of mud and didn’t like messing my new shoes. I think it has something to with a poor childhood and the only thing guarantee not to be a hand me down was new shoes which were to be kept perfect as long as possible. But what the hey they will get dirty why not today.

I ran to music (and yes I was careful and mostly on almost traffic less roads.) One of the local NPR stations carries From The Top a program that features young classical talent. If ever you have a rotten week and are convinced the world’s going to hell in a hand basket listen to From The Top. It always makes me feel better about life. Immediately following was the Met’s rendition of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. It’s bel canto opera – a form popular in the early 19th century where plot was minimal and the singers drove all. Rossini wrote it in three weeks when he was just 21. It sounds like a young man’s opera. Although I was over an hour into the run the overture got me doing an incredibly fast mile. I finished my run to the rousing finish of Act One where all seven principals are on stage singing as bells. Great fun.

Today’s run much more mundane but still satisfying because the warming temps are near perfect. This I could get use to.

Chad Brooks