Pennelville 8

After working for a few hours this morning, I finally got out for my run around 10:45. I had it in my head that it would be nice to get in 8 on the roads, to give my legs and ankles a bit of a break from all the snow-running. Oh, I could have run right from home and done the Meadow Cross loop, but while Meadow and Meadow Cross are nice, the 2 1/2 miles at the end of the loop along Rt. 196 irk me to no end, so I nixed that one for today. I decided instead to drive over to the Pennelville fields and run down to the ocean and along some of Brunswick's back roads. I haven't been out that way in forever.

It was overcast and 35, with almost no wind. The fields, now mostly browned and matted, were streaked with thin ribbons of of snow and ice. I hit Simpson's Point at high tide - the ocean was gray and flat, the distant islands trimmed with dark green spruce. Along Rossmore, the river through the tidal flats was running high, and large chunks of ice sat atop the grasses. The overall feeling was one of starkness, but it's beautiful out that way nonetheless. The one spot of color was that of two pairs of bluebirds and a goldfinch flitting about in the brush along Merepoint before I turned onto Rossmore. They must be drawn to the landscape there, with its open fields. Likely someone is feeding them as well. The sighting made me smile. Who doesn't like bluebirds?!

I forgot my Garmin at home (Can you believe it?!), so did the loop "naked," which was a little odd, for although I don't look at my watch too much while running, I like having the feedback available. Still, having mapped the route out on mapmyrun last night, I knew that the loop was just a bit shy of 8 miles. I added on a bit at the end in the hopes of actually logging 8, and finished up in 1:06.