Shuffling Run

Alcoa Greenway Trail 7.5 mi in 1:00:30, pace 8:04. I’m very surprised by that pace, because I felt like I was just shuffling most of the way. It did NOT seem like 8-minute miles, but I’m pleased that it was. I had a little trouble with the left Lisfranc ligament, probably from stepping crooked on that foot in the semi-darkness. OK now.

Every once in a while I travel to Alcoa, TN, to do some consulting work. Then I run the Alcoa-Maryville Greenway Trail, eight miles of blacktop surface bordered by woods and parks, with only a few road crossings, and with overhead lights every 75 feet the entire way. I know of nothing like it in Minnesota; it’s wonderful. I can run this trail hours before sunrise, as I did this morning, without a headlight and rarely even within view of a road. I stay in a hotel located conveniently near. Despite my clunky, plodding feeling during the run, it was a delightful morning, with a nearly-full moon penetrating the ghostly trees, leaving shadows wherever the overhead lights didn’t fill them in. But, thankfully, it was my last day in Tennessee and now I get to be home with my sweeties, better than any fancy trail.