Mid-August

Crazy that it is the middle of August! This summer has been flying by and with the next few weekends full of activity, it's going to be September and back to school before we know it. Sunrise is already getting later and later each morning so I know fall is around the corner even if at the moment it sure doesn't feel like it! The beginning of this week was warm and humid again. Ugh. I most certainly am looking forward to the cooler, crisp days of autumn!

Tuesday morning dawned gray and overcast. And humid, of course ;) Ran Highland Green Road with the middle three miles a focused effort at 'speed.' This is all relative of course, but I did manage to run into the 7:5x's for the 2nd two middle miles. Haven't seen the low side of 8:00's in a while so that was nice. Felt decent. One Great Blue Heron seen. No sunrise. (5.0 miles)

Wednesday I headed out into the Cathance for a mellow meander. Not sure if it was raining or if it was just so humid it felt like it! ;) Either way, it was soggy, the bog bridges were extremely slippery and there were mushrooms everywhere. Apparently they like this ridiculous weather at least! :) (6.0 miles)

This morning, I headed over to the Brad for my long run. We're headed to NJ this evening for a long weekend to hand out with family and celebrate Gavin's birthday. We'll get in some miles while we're there but there isn't time for a long run so this morning it was! Thankfully I've got enough time off to allow for a few extra days here and there!

Yet again, it was insanely humid, and rather overcast. On the plus side, many many mushrooms to be seen!

Miles 3 to 5 ended up involving some unexpected course pick-up from the Breaker. Man, those signs and flags get heavy when you are carrying two armfuls and trying to run!! ;)

Got in 5 on the mountain side and then headed over to the east side for 5 more miles before realizing I still had a bit of time to get before Val and Anne arrived to join me for the second half of the run. Ran up and back a few times on the Northern Loop to get in 11 before taking a short break at the car to change shirts, refill water and gels and try to clean up a bit. Ha! So happy to have Val and Anne join me for the final miles! It was great to catch up and it helped keep me moving ;) We ran the new BBU west side course. The powerlines were pretty overgrown, which was not super fun, but we did scare up about a dozen turkeys and there were tons of wildflowers to be seen. All in all, a solid run. I finished absolutely soaked and tired :) (20.4 miles)

On the home front, we've had a set of fox kits visiting out back. One of them will come and sit right down and chomp away on the birdseed and nuts that I put out :) So adorable!