What's Next?: Early Morning Wander

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Early Morning Wander

After several mellow weeks of running, today was the first day with "long" run back on the schedule. With Run the Rock on the horizon (oh yeah, and that 100 too :) ), it's time to start training again! Of course, at this point long is a relative term - the plan only called for 10 so it was certainly doable :) but I was trying to cram it in before swimming so it meant an early start. I was up and out of the house a few minutes after 6:00 am. I had originally intended to do a long road loop, but had a change of heart this morning about being out in the middle of nowhere on the roads in the dark, and decided to do a wander across the street instead.

I ran the 3-mile Patriot Commons loop before returning to the Mt. A. fields, where I followed the groomed ski trail up into the woods. These middle miles were the best of the day! Light was beginning to glow along the horizon and the ski trails made for some sweet running. I was really happy to be on packed snow, looking at the animal tracks in the layer of fresh snow along the golf course, and just was truly enjoying the run. I ran through the woods, up the back hill and down again, then along hole 1, 2 and 3 and back; then a loop on Highland Green Road before returning home. I had on a lot of layers, but it was so chilly and by the final two miles I was definitely getting cold. I also apparently accumulated some serious frost along my hood line/in the wisps of hair that had escaped my hood and hat - there was much laughter at my appearance when I returned home :)

I finished up with 10.6 miles, home in time to take a shower, grab a quick breakfast and take Sam to swimming. Then back home to drop off Sam before hitting the road with Amy to head south and pick up Molly, who Amy had happily agreed to adopt. When Ted passed away last week, this left Molly, the cat, with no place to go. I really wanted to take her in, as I knew Phyllis would never have wanted her to go back to the shelter, but the reality is that our house is a bit too small for three cats, and it wouldn't really have been fair to anyone to take her in, due to space, allergies, the fact that Molly had claws, etc. Knowing that Amy is the consummate animal lover, I asked her if she might possibly want to take Molly in. The answer was almost immediate, and it was yes, of course. Many thanks to Amy for being so sweet and generous, and for opening her home to another animal! This makes us all so happy :)

As I was leaving her house, having dropped she and Molly off, I got a text from Ryan that Sam wanted to go skiing when I got home. So another quick change and off I went again! We didn't last long out there, but despite being fairly exhausted, Sam did a great job today. Always good to get out on the snow!