Favorite Trail is Open

I ran on my most favorite trail today, the first time this season. There is a marvelous two-rut road alongside the tracks that go through the town of Lake Woebegone, maintained (barely) as a service road by the railroad. It is soft everywhere, even a little muddy in places today, but littered here and there with fairly large ankle-threatening stones which have fallen down from the raised rail bed. I love this trail. Though it presents a mild risk, it keeps me literally on my toes, and the softness of the ground makes it like a slight uphill. It’s actually quite flat, of course, entirely free of traffic, and almost entirely free of people. Perhaps an occasional walker, but no runners. Friends and family who have run this trail with me have been uniformly underwhelmed. It’s my place, and apparently mine alone.

Today the railroad gods even honored me with a short 10-car train rumbling by eight feet away as I ran in the opposite direction. The engineer waved. Eagle Momma worries about trains, wants me to be aware of escape routes in case of a derailment. I think about that anyway; she needn’t worry. Today I would have had to pitch headlong down an embankment to get away if the rumble turned into a CRASH - CRUNCH. No problem, I sure would have. :-) I love everything about trains, including the rush from being that close to so many tons of thundering, hurtling machinery. Today is a masterpiece already! The only thing better is actually riding on the train.

The run wasn’t bad either. Eight miles on the soft trail, then five more on hilly neighborhood roads, all in 1:53:23, pace 8:43. Pace for the first eight 8:39, and for the last five 8:51. I did stop to talk to some guys drilling test holes in the road (to bring city water and sewer to our woebegone neighborhood) and didn’t account for that, so the time might be a slight bit better. Never mind, it’s good enough. This is supposed to be an easy week and I’m playing that to the max.

Temp 34, wind 15 (plenty breezy). I wore tights and two tech shirts underneath a wind jacket; perfect. My sweeties met me on the five-mile leg of the run; that was very nice. A great day to be alive.