Monday, I didn't run and I didn't take any photos, so a Tuesday start to the 7 day challenge, I guess :0 We were all tired out from the weekend!
Tuesday, I was up and out early into the cold, crisp and dark morning. Ran the cart paths and enjoyed the light from the thin sliver of a crescent moon and brilliant Venus shimmering below it right above the treeline, with just a hint of a glow along the horizon as the sky began to lighten in the final few miles. Beautiful. (6.0 miles)
By the Light of the Moon (and Venus)
7 Days of Black and White (1/7)
#hillsforbreakfast
Sleepy Gigi Monster
7 Days of Black and White (2/7)
Front Door Mums
7 Days of Black and White (3/7)
Friday morning, I dropped Sam off and headed over to the Brad for a run. With regular deer hunting season opening soon and Pinhoti coming up, I likely won't get over to Brad again until after Thanksgiving, so I figured I might as well take the opportunity for one last mid-length run there, enjoying the fall foliage and the trails.
Val was going to meet me at 10:00 so I had 1:40 or so to play with. It was a beautiful, sunny morning with almost perfect temps and blue sky. Lovely. I headed up to the summit, and realized along the way that, whew, my legs felt tired already. Guess it really is time to taper! Up at the summit I stopped to take in the view, and fumbled to get my earbud (just one) in and music on. I had brought my earphones to test out - I'm really not a music person but I wondered if music might be a good option during Pinhoti if I needed some respite and distraction. I realized in the 7 miles that I did run with the earbud in that, while a good distraction from simply listening to the whirling thoughts in my brain, it is probably not something I'd really want to do on most runs. Perhaps some of it was the equipment, as there was way too much fiddling with the earbud and then Pandora was buffering for a while midway through and I was like 'what the h*@l, why isn't this working?' and frankly that was frustrating. I also felt much less connected with the world around me, which is always something I love about running in the woods. So test successful and honestly, probably the outcome I would have suspected ;)
In any event, the woods were beautiful, the trail littered with fallen leaves and it was just a plain old beautiful day to be out enjoying nature.
Beautiful Brad
Sunlight through the trees
I got back to the parking lot a few minutes early, enough time to use the bathroom, change shirts and eat a Payday ;) A yummy and not too sweet addition to my Pinhoti bag :)
Val suggested running Mindy's 40 for 40 birthday loop backwards, and since I wasn't there for that run and I was happy to have her lead the way, why not? It was kind of like the Bruiser backwards and without the O and Island. We had fun chatting away as we ran along and it was good to catch up.
We got back to the lot with my watch reading 15.75 miles and saw that Mindy's car was in the lot still (she and a friend were hiking and planning to meet us for lunch after), so we decided to hike up to the summit to see if we could find them. I had already stopped my watch but of course, being slightly OCD with these things, turned it back on again for our short 0.6 mile loop up and over the summit and down Switchback to the cut-over trail to the Quarry. A good additional foray, although we did not find Mindy :)
Summit view
Then it was over to Edna & Lucy's for more chatter and a delicious salad followed up by my favorite of their dessert options - a carrot cake cupcake. Yum! A good morning for sure!
Running Reward
7 Days of Black and White
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