OWL-DRAGON

What a beautiful morning. Clear and 60. I had always thought of Delaware County has a good place to avoid the extremes of climate. A four season place with hot humid summers and cold winters but nothing extreme. But in the last couple of years I think the whole county has up and moved to somewhere in the mid-west. It started with Floyd a tired old hurricane that was mostly tropical storm when it got here but then decided to hang around and around. Worst flooding we ever saw. The next summer was a drought. The next summer the most days over 90 ever. Then a winter when we had more and deeper snow then Maine. Then last fall the wind storm (don’t know if they ever decided it was a tornado) that knock down trees, took off roofs. Then this Sunday it was water again. Six inches of rain in less than two hours. Some of the areas flooded were in a flood plain and were use to high water but other places had never seen water like this. Streams that were normally a trickle raged carrying off cars, bridges, and roads. (Sometime this morning we will officially become a federal disaster area.)

What does that have to do with running – nothing other than it was a great morning to be out in woods this time to benefit from one of those extremes (calling for record lows tonight!). While some of my humid weather runs have been all effort, today was the opposite. The miles flew by and even more than usual I found myself reluctant to leave the woods and so did another loop. For the past couple of weeks I have been going further into the woods taking paths I never used before. Sometimes I easily rejoin a known trail and sometimes I get lost and must retrace my steps but it has been great fun. Today on my detour I encountered a stag with a large rack. He came crashing out of the underbrush just in front of me and raced down the path with me just behind him. Shortly he turned off the path and just feet off the path turned and watched to see if I would follow. We stood facing each other only a couple of feet apart until he bolted deeper into the brush. Earlier a rabbit had played a similar game. He would race ahead, wait for me to catch up, then race ahead. He did this five or six times before tiring of the game and disappearing into the undergrowth. (Now I know it is silly to anthropomorphize this natural behavior but I can’t help thinking there is some sport for them in this – silly human we are the real athletes.)

Next week I will do the Half-Wit Marathon (If you want to read a fun race application click on the link). After reading about 50Ks and longer and 6 hour runs I hate to admit I am somewhat intimidated by that course. It is the toughest run I have ever done, far more than any of my twelve marathons. I can only wish that the weather is like today and not the 90s it has been the last two years.

Tonight I will volunteer at Bryn Mawr Running Company’s Shut Up and Run 5K. New this year is the Zoom Mile. The elite category should be a great race to watch especially with the cool weather and slight downhill, no turns there should be some very fast times.