OWL-DRAGON

Morning Run

It seems to me that I had heard that warmer air was coming and that a nice weekend was in store but today is cloudy, damp and very cool. Now I hear talk that a northeaster will bring rain tonight and into tomorrow.

It has been a couple of weeks since I headed south on my favorite trail. Someone has cleared the fallen trees I climbed over and under all winter. I had actually run past the first point when I realized suddenly that I was usually clambering over a fallen giant. Now fresh sawdust marks the spot. The mornings should be brighter but today is gloomy. The green on a gray day has a different quality, richer, deeper. The woods are filled with white dogwood. These slender trees will disappear in the summer but now they dominate the woods. Not many flowers survive the deer but here and there patches of wild flowers bloom and the Arboretum protected by its deer fence is full of flowering trees. The birds are in full throat – I wish I had the ability to pick out all the separate songs. A woodpecker is drumming away – I look for him as the sound increases but I never do seem him.

I haven’t run since Sunday’s race to rest the hamstring. It continues to seem achy but not painful. And as in the race it seems the ache subsides with time. Not sure how I should proceed – more rest or just some slow running. Am I doing any harm with a slow run? It seems like a knot and the discomfort sometimes low toward the back of my knee and then seems higher. Strange.

On the trail the time seems to slip away quickly. Time so relative - the last mile of a race seems to last forever and this quiet, slow run seems to be over too soon. The land is at once old and filled with new things; the air itself has an aroma perhaps of the earth itself waking up. And briefly I feel very connected to everything around me – it is a good feeling. I gave thought to a runner on my email group whose lost her Dad in a tragic accident. I hope she will find peace on her trail as she celebrates her father’s life.

I volunteered to help at Bryn Mawr’s Out and Back race tonight. Last year it was a cold, wet affair with rain that only got heavier as the night went on. It looks like this year may be a repeat.