Friday, July 22, 2011

The Forests Have Eyes

I had planned on a zero day today, due to the incredible heat wave (101.5F/38.6C for the high today) and also because I'm in a taper. However, despite having Chinese take-out for dinner and washing it down with a couple of barley sodas, a few hours later I decided to take advantage of the somewhat cooler nighttime temps and hit the trails out back for a run, leaving at 9pm.

It went well, and as the trail gradually moved farther away from the road I saw at least a couple of pairs of little eyes reflecting the light of my headlamp back at me. I mused they were probably raccoons. Fireflies also danced along the trails, gently illuminating their bodies for a few seconds before disappearing back into the darkness. I soon reached the fire roads, which provides less technical running but I still kept the pace easy. As I did so, a barred owl hooted in the distance.

I ran the out and back trail route I normally run in the pre-dawn night time hours, so kind of fun to do it on the opposite side of the night time spectrum. Very glad I went out.

Ran 5.1 miles @ 9:08/mile pace.
Trails and fire roads.
Mostly flat.
Around 80 degrees, partly cloudy, humid.
Adidas Adizero XT, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap, headlamp, hand held bottle (water).

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