What A Difference...

What a difference a day, a rainstorm and a different state makes! I guess there should be no surprise that I'm tired. Combine that, last night's rain, this morning's dreariness, much less melted snow and the fact that the Highland Green golf course is open, and you get one grumpy lady :-} I was highly unmotivated to get out and go for my schedule 10 miler this morning. I brought Sam into daycare as my parents are up in Maine, and nicely agreed to take care of her on Friday so that I could get my run in today and get a few things done. I knew I had to go, so after grocery shopping and doing a few things around the house, I finally booted myself out the door. My plan was to run the cart path once, perhaps twice, and add whatever else was necessary to get to 10. But as I ran down over Mt. Ararat and neared the cart path crossing on Mountain Road, I saw golfers! GOLFERS! Walking with their carts. Sigh. OK, scrap that plan. So much for early season cart path running! Apparently the season has begun... Out of habit, I simply ran across the street and up near the Quarry, taking the Heath down to the Cathance trails. I ran the Barnes Leap trail, tiptoeing across the many patches of snow and ice and the slick bogbridges, and trying not to fall into the undermined mud and frost heaves along the way. Slow going. But, I did scare up a Pileated Woodpecker and a Snowshoe Hare, so that was cool. The river looked like hot chocolate, a deep and dark and cloudy brown, flowing steadily. I headed bak toward the Ecology center and took the Heath back up to the Quarry. Only 4 miles done. Sigh. What to do, what to do.

I headed down the dirt road to Tedford to try out the powerlines, but they were in really rough shape, with deep mud and frost-heaved quicksand sucking at my shoes. I decided it wasn't worth it and turned around. Back up Tedford to run the Highland Green loop backwards, then an additional mile on the High School road to get the mileage to an even 10. Can't believe how different today's run felt than yesterday. Definitely not the same physical and mental strength today, but I got it done. And now that I've eaten my fruits and veggies, let there be leftover cake (and ice cream)! :-)