eat first, then run

Went for my first run since the weekend break. What a fun weekend with my girls(and the boys)!
Had some serious trouble motivating with the crappy weather out there today. Its the first cold and blustery day since June. I am in denial still that the sun is not coming back with its full force of heat and draught to save me from fall coming and my having to go back to work mowing everyone's lawn again for the next two months.
Had my coffee and waited, actually doing house chores to avoid going out. Finally put on my running gear, first shpants day since May! Had a staff meeting to attend at the centre, so I figured I'd run there and back, the long way, as my run today, two birds, like.
Every Planet We Reach is Dead Gorillaz
Set out straight down the main street at an easy easy pace. Felt good. PMA on my back, and the shpants made me feel very Rocky-esque a few times. Did something to my ankle between racing for the light and turning into the path on the hill
When the Night Comes the Black Keys
Already my ankle was making me cry, it felt burning, like walking on a sprain that hasnt moved in four weeks, only I was running on it. This made no sense, my ankle is fine! I kept trying to run until I had such pain that I was limping. I made it to the 17th street bridge and had to walk for awhile, sure that it would ease off.
Non Zero Possibility At the Drive In
Started running to this song, down the hill on the other side of the bridge, past the boat and RV stores, looking out over the fields. So pretty.
Winters Wolves the Sword
Queen of Bees Witchcraft
I loved those two songs, but it hurt a lot to run. Kept going anyway. I made it to Ryan Rd, the long way around the bypass, then realized I hadn't yet eaten today, only had coffee. Maybe that's what was wrong!
HA! I remembered the sticky dehydrated muscles picture in my head, and obviously that carries to the rest of my body, I'm sure. Took off the headphones, paused the run and went to get some sushi! Ate it at the staff meeting and was perfectly fine on the run home after!
his was the soundtrack for the return.
Pacific Theme Broken Social Scene
Run To You Brian Adams
Harvest Neil Young
Skit Souls
Big Road Blues Canned Heat
When Things Go Wrong Canned Heat
Sorrow Evoker Sword/Witchcraft
I thought alot on the run to Shoppers about how terribly im treating my body this time around. I'm up to a 16km long run, and eating total crap! Last time around I was on a strict healthy sort of diet-not-diet, call it an energy food plan. I decided to step it up again, and went in to Shoppers to get the last vitamin on my list i'd been putting off-Iron. I even texted Paula to get the brand the pro runners use, which is silly, but, I was in an all or nothing kind of mood. The cheap ones were 60 pills for 12 bucks, I looked at them, and asked for the PROferrin(its even Pro in its name!Boy do I feel special.). I didn't look at the price or quantity, but it turns out that if I take their recommended dosage, I got ten days worth of pills for 25 bucks. Oops. SO now I am eating a billion pills every day, here's the list: Ibuprofenx2, Calciumx1, Magnesiumx1, Glucosaminex6, and Ironx3. This lady at the ice rink told me I ought to be eating Selenium as well, but I am already a little nervous about this crazy mix and feel that I should run it past a pharmacist or a naturopath before I go too far. Hmm, I've been meaning to do that for some time now...
I also am embarrassed to say I got some protein powder. Last time I was drinking boost. Same dif! So shut up! hahaha! I feel like a juicer! But I am determined to get back on top of this energy lack crisis I've stumbled into.
Onward and upward and 16kms tomorrow after lawnmowing!

Summer downpour

I didn't see the big black clouds until I'd started. It was nice enough out, and warm enough, I could handle a little rain.
Big Sky Reverend Horton Heat
White Wedding Billy Idol
It was hill day and I was on my way down hill number one when it started to hammer down.
Rio Duran Duran
Laserblast Fu Manchu
Let It Fly Duane Peters Gunfight
By the time I'd reached the bottom I was soaked through, still trying to tie up the hood. I gave up and let it swamp me, enjoying the warmth of the last of summer in the rain.
DARE Gorillaz
Rock de la Stet Stetsasonic
I got really into enjoying the rain; seeing it on my shins, running down my legs and pasting my hair down onto my head, then feeling it run down my face, and drip off my chin. It was awesome pretending it was all sweat and that I was working that hard when I wasn't.
Gut Feeling(Slap Yer Mammy) Devo
4ever my Beat Stetsasonic
I was on hill number four and thought it was funny this song came on. I also decided that this would be my last hill for the day since my shoes were full of water and squishing the shit out of the nasty new shoe back of the ankle blister buster.
Chanbara At The Drive In
Afternoon Tea the Kinks
Headed back down the strip to home and was showered and dressed before the crew arrived from the city to rock the weekend with me.
I Got Mine the Black Keys
There's a World Neil Young

14k

Decided it was time to go. 5pm. Wing night to get to after.
house of pain van halen
It hurt to get going, pains in my foot, my knee, my back.
brokedown palace grateful dead
GOt onto the train tracks, an old faithful route. I like this song, it reminded me to slow down.
gimme some water snfu
ALready over 1k, seeming to take forever, though, I want this done already.
2nd stage turbine blade coheed&cambria
Lookout for the stinging nettles! The side paths are overgrown with brambles, weeds, grass, and trees trying to come up. Makes it even smaller than the one track it is.
hearshot K coheed&cambria
back to basom ween
Aw, good, Im glad for slow songs, I don't want to run fast. My knee is still funky. I'm keeping a beat with the keys, cel, and ipod in the pocket on my back. Good pace.
til I get my way the black keys
shack#9 old crow medicine show
Only at WalMart. Serious? Only 4kms? I want this over!
skin & bone the kinks
all alone gorillaz
This is when it got fun. Finally. I like this song. I was hand dancing and enjoying the stretch down to the ocean, then back in to the trees.
start your digging big business
So good, through the trees is nice, so green. Haven't done this route in long enough to really like it.
drug train the cramps
goodbye babylon the black keys
The long waterfront stretch. I can't be almost at the Airpark, I've only gone 6kms! No! I want this done! I don't want to do an extra lap around anything!
more light j.mascis
runnin down a dream
Ugh, through the airpark already and out the other side.
own brain ian brown
I like this song. Was feeling home stretch like. But wasn't even close. About to start the long uphill grind to 5th and home.
420 duane peters gunfight
wonder what they're thinking snfu
harry rag the kinks
uuuuuphiiiiillllllll, booo.
can't I take this on j.mascis
Finally popped out on 5th and got a nice little down and flat. The stairs to under the bridge nearly broke my knees, though.
holiday the kinks
Didn't hear this, as I was grinding up that last hill.
8x over miss october clutch
white light gorillaz
Made the shocking decision to not finish my run early, at 11kms. Turned up 5th St, to make the last 3 happen on familiar ground. up to the school and back.
she's not on the menu SNFU
everybody wants to rule the world thompson twins
hard row the black keys
Half way to the end of the stretch I wasn't going to do. Kind of regretting it, but also pretty stoked that I will have accomplished my goal shortly. Knee is dying. I am limpy.
faith george michaels
That's right, just a little faith. I'll make it home.
down south blues old crow medicine show
back to the planet duane peters gunfight
And holy crap, I was groaning and moaning, it hurt the most when I stopped. Stretched it out, showered, and went for wing night to celebrate. Done and done.

Ouch.

Took another week off following my amazing 5Peaks trail run. My left knee felt about to blow all week, and my foot, the whole top around my pinky toe is still yellow from kicking some bolts concreted into the pool deck and just awaiting the arrival of the diving board during my super awesome vacation time.
I am now on the counting down side of my training, 8 weeks to go. Past the halfway point and really getting nervous about the amount of training Im supposed to be doing versus the amount I am actually doing. I barely made it through the last half marathon. Hopefully I will get through this one on the strength of just having been running for longer now than before!
I ran at noon, the sky is covered, and rain began spitting down on me. I loved it. The air is changing over to cool, and I'll miss the tank top and shorts at night, but it is nice to not boil inside anymore, and to be able to run whenever again, not just at either end of the hot day.
Today was a short 4km, to get ready for tomorrow's 14. I know that I can run 14kms, but my knee today was telling me that maybe I shouldn't? It worries me a lot. At 2km I was limping. Last thing I need or want is to be incapacitated right before the beginning of my first year back in school since 1994. I need to be all there, ready, set, go. And I know that running can help me be there, sharpen my physical and mental strengths. But if I'm not careful, it could be a rocky start. Ease on down the road, Em; there's a lot of it to go!

run of my life

So when I was telling some people I was going camping at Golden Ears and was looking forward to a run in the woods, this 5Peaks thing was brought up. I searched it out on the internet and printed out the map for the sport course. It looked like an achievable challenge. Difficult, but doable.
http://www.5peaks.com/schedule.asp?p=bc
The Golden Ears run went down in April.

I set off at 5:30, having learned my lesson of no new trails in the darkness. I had to drive down to the start place, much too far from the campsite to consider adding onto the 8.8kms it already was. Plus, I didn't know what to expect.
I clutched that map in my sweaty palm the whole way, and still got a little lost right at the start, through criss crossing trails surrounding the day use area. Once I was going, though, it was golden. Through the forest, lots of ups and downs, and twists, and rocky, rooty challenges. My body was not used to all of the elevation changes, I am spoiled by the flat surface in my road runs. It was glorious. Steep climbs, muddy gullies, a bog, little bridges, and open forest floors, covered in my favorite ferns. I loved the feeling of climbing.
I run faster in the woods, I know this without having my Ipod tracker thingy. I had to slow myself down to keep pace with my heartbeat. I loved the idea of how intense the training must be for this kind of running, as I was listening to my heart thump in my ears. My stamina is definitely not yet up to par for this course.
I was getting tired already at 4.5kms, and questioning my motives in doing this, as I came to the bottom of the 'Mike Lake Trail'. I stopped and looked up the path. It wasn't so much a path as a steep rocky gully that disappeared straight up a hillside, into the treetops. I got very nervous, considering the dangers of getting hurt out on this one, with no one really knowing just where I went. I went ahead, in spite of my fears and doubts that I could make it up the next 1.5 or so kms- which, on the course map showed an elevation gain of about one foot per foot, or 125m. I gathered up my mental strength and went forward. Upward. Onward. Into the creepiest woods, empty of everything green, just brown poles, and brown ground, with lots of windfallen trees laying between the living ones. As if I needed any reenforcement that this was bad ju-ju, there was the forest around me appearing haunted.
I focused on the path, and gave it my all, until I felt like my heart would bust out of my ears, exploding my head with the incredible volume of blood that was causing this molten lava red face. I got lightheaded and slowed to a walk, but a fast walk. I was not going to stop for anything, I was trucking, and determined. I saw a marker, 0.5, on a tree. Seriously? That's it? Fuck.
Keep climbing. Rocks slipping under clumsy feet, echoing through the empty ghost forest I was trying to sneak past. I put myself out of my mind when I could not imagine going any further, and just kept taking steps.
A waterfall! A summit? It made a sick, gurgling, slurping sound as I hiked past it, barely able to breathe. The path seemed to ease out a little and I forced my self to run. I turned a corner, and it was all downhill in front of me. A toad startled me. I had nearly stepped on it. In this forest, it was so likely a thing to see, but I was immeasurably happy to see another living thing, I grabbed onto the idea of it as my spirit helper. I was also pretty amazed at myself. I had had a moment of complete crumbling, a feeling like I would die if I went on, and I passed over it.
I really came face to face with myself on this run, and I don't give a fuck if that sounds cheesy.
I carefully hopped down, down, down, until I reached the road and crossed it again, back into familiar territory, back into the easier terrain. I was cheering myself on all the way down.
My knee was squishy, that was definitely a result of the difficult coming down. It was tricky to keep my feet and knees and body all stable and engaged so nothing would twist or strain, and that knee always gets swelly after six K. It hurt, but at this point I was happy to get home, and I ran. I ran fast! Through salmon berry bushes that were trying to eat the trail, up and down rolling dusty, gravelly, and muddy tree lined pathways, where other people feet had sank up to their knees, I floated over, knowing that I had done it.
I got back to the beach area, still very occupied my day trippers, and walked to the water's edge. I didn't give a crap any more, I stripped down to the sports bra and undies as I they were made for swimming in, and dove right in, ducking under and floating and stretching and smiling.
Hardest run so far.
And also the best run ever.

in the woods

Set out from the campsite, actually, directly from the outhouse. No walkman, dead Ipod, no tunes, no tracker, no plan. Picked up the new shoes in Maple Ridge, and I can't quit grinning the whole way to the path, they feel great, and look grandma sharp.
I made for the 'Interpretive Forest Trail', really really hoping to see some people in the woods striking pained 'trees reaching for heaven' poses. I guess they had gotten off of work already, I was alone and it was at least 7:30. It was beautiful, the forest floor covered in rich green ferns below the mossy fir poles. It turned out to be a very short trail, so I took a left, onto the 'Fallen Giants' path. There were no such giants, but the trail was rooty and rocky and demanded my attention- a cool new challenge. I was spat out at the 'Ampitheatre', which sounded like it was going to be awesome, but was a letdown, with four or five rows of brown wooden benches on a slight slope, no grand cathedral here.
Kept on, deciding to go down towards the water, through the other camping area we accidentally-wrong-turned into earlier and got lost in, not realizing until we passed the same pink child's bicycle for the second time that we could have gotten lost in the matrix, here. My plan was to hit the beach, and then back up the trail to our own campsite that we'd hiked earlier. On the map, they connected. I guess, once I got down the long driveway into the Alouette Campground, I took an immediate wrong turn. I looped around the entire perimeter, watching for a 'beach this way' sign. Maybe I just ran right past it. Either way, one full loop. No big deal, I had wanted a longer run today. I finally came upon the sign, a trail marked only by a great dane's head with a slash through it. OK, no dogs.
I jumped into a pretty dark forest, but knew this trail was a short one. I jumped and jigged, down the steep path, loving the challenge of a not so well marked path and having to really use my legs and core to stabilize my descent. I couldn't look up, and barely slowed, just kept going down, down, down, to the waters edge, I could see the last light from the sky shining on it through the branches in my peripheral. I was suddenly held up by a treetrunk that had falled across the path with only about 3feet of clearance underneath it. I though that was pretty weird for the main trail to te beach to have something old people would have to crawl under...and then I looked around. As I was catching my breath, I saw that there was no trail here at all. I stared at the light on water below, and at this log that I was not at all comfortable crawling under inthe darkness. There was something the size of a small leaf suspended in front of my face. I watched it, really hoping it wasn't a spider, but pretty sure those were legs. Ran away. Up the way I came, I thought, then across the ridge above the water that got steeper and darker and thicker. Then I felt like I might be circling, so I stopped to quell the moment of panic that rose with that thought.
It is not possible for me to get lost in this sliver of woods between the lake and a campsite with 400 people in it, even in the middle of the night. I laughed at myself when I heard someone nearby walking their dog. So close I could hear the little furball panting. I bumbled through the brush and popped out onto the main trail, possibly causing distress to the elderly dog walked but more concerned with getting the spiderwebs and resulting spiders off of me. I'll never be Indiana Jones, I guess.
Over a bridge, along the beach, out the other side. I had planned a longer loop, down another wooded path, the 'Gold Creek Lookout', bu when I got to the mouth of the path, it looked like a black hole back into the wilderness. I sat on the rocks at the waters edge and looked out over the water. Sweat slippery on my thighs, I rubbed them and watched the sky fade some more, mentally absorbing the calm I would need to make the massive hill up the white chip rock path to my campsite. The right path.
Emma learned: No new paths after 8pm!

back atcha

So I've missed another week of running due to having an awesome summer.
I am not too bummed about it, but am ready to get back on track and even have the opportunity to get some runs in on new ground. Today's 8 was a 4, but I tacked on a few to help me catch up. In my head I've got a thousand km goal for the year, and I've got to stay on track if I am going to make that. What a great feeling that would be!
I threw on the Black Keys and let my mind wander.
Some things I thought about:
The new shoes Paula and I found for me at the Running Room. I'm in trouble with these. They'll be nearly $200 after tax, and we only went there to get sized properly, find out why I lost my toenail. They gave me these to put on and there really is no turning back now. My glass slipper. My whole body relaxed as the balls of my feet sank into the cloudy cushy softness and my toes spread out to hug the shoes. I had to fight against my body to get them off my feet and hand them back to the salesperson. My plan was to find the most similar shoe to the one they suggested, at the half price sport market. But as I tried shoe after shoe on, looking for the best match, it became clear there was no comparison, I am screwed. Sold. Shit.
Second thoughts: Today I am in Langley, very near Aldergrove, where I grew up. I ran towards the Evergreen Market, a marker I used to pass every day on my 20km drive to my special fundamental school; we travelled far to learn our three R's like pro's! I also remember deciding to go for a long distance bike ride to this market when I was six, from 256th and 48th, to 242nd and 56th. I brought my neighbor, my best friend, and her parents found us along 242nd, after we'd already spent our entire allowance on candy and were heading home, so we were set, and all the shit we got in was worth it. I was trying to expand on this memory, but all I could recall was the Sour Lemon Blasters, and that when we got home, we set up a stand at the end of the driveway to try and sell them.
Other thoughts: Golden Ears. I am going camping there later, and am looking forward to doing some running up there. Kerri mentioned a 5Peaks run, so I am looking that up to find a trail. Ow my knees. The whole first half of this run was a gradual uphill, and when I turned onto 242nd, I was faced with a crazy wall. I swore at it and took it on like a champ. No problem. I've come far.
I thought of Paula at home with her screw in her ankle, and ran faster, farther, and kept an eye on my path.
When it told me I was halfway, I went a little further, the red flashing light at the 4 way stop was calling me. I never noticed the market, I was thinking hard about taking the twisty route back down the hill, coming around back to Sam's house by way of 232nd. I hurried back but I didn't see a sidewalk or much of a shoulder, so I kept to what I knew. It was a good and quick trip home, my pace increased thanks to the easy downhills, and I made up a little time. At 2k to go, my toenail started hurting me. For the wedding I went to, and just for a fun outing with the girls, I got my ruined big toenail remade by technology, and the girl made it longer than usual. It looks very pretty again, no longer black and yellow and in half, ut it was hitting the front of my shoe, pushing down onto the rest of the toe, I had to scrunch it up to keep it from doing that, but I made it.
Somehow the distance didn't work out evenly, I finished at just under eight, sweating from everywhere, even my shins and elbows were sweating, and it felt awesome.
Till tomorrow! On a mountain!

Wildfires

The sun was just a glowing copper coin behind white curtains all day. Smoke hung in the air at the edges of the fields, at the edges of my vision. Looking across the river, I couldn't be sure if I was really seeing smoke, or...was it a storytime mist, as if someone was about to tell all about Once Upon A Time In A Kingdom Far Away...or It was A Dark And Stormy Night...
At one point when I looked toward the hills I could barely see the glacier. The only fire I'm aware of is burning in the Okanagan...seriously a good five hours east of here, if you could drive across the Georgia Straight and through the Coast Mountains. What the hell is going on? I debated whether running in it would wreck my throat or hurt in my lungs. After a disappointing workday with too many cancellations, two swims, and a fair amount of sunbathing at the riverside, I felt I ought to accomplish something.

She Is Free Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas
I love this song, but it is a little sad for me. Makes me want to go home right now and happily surrender all so called freedom. It was a nice slow start to the run, down McPhee.
Oceans and Streams The Black Keys
Had to fiddle with the Ipod a bit, since I purposely set it to that song first, then no more. I forgot how much I liked this Sugoi top, it has a big, baggy pocket on the back, between the shoulder blades, which saves me having to wear my crappy sportband, or hide a key.
Pandy Fackler Ween
Running up the hill to the park, across the tracks on 17th, still taking it easy. Passed another runner coming towards me. We kept looking away just to miss saying hi. I waved anyway.
Absynthe The Gits
I felt my pace quicken to this song as I set up Cumberland Rd, but it didn't last very long, I got so breathless so quickly. Slowed my pace, sang along, and felt good.
Rude Boy Abroad Bedouin Soundclash
Coming back toward Lake Trail Rd on I don't know what street through the Willemar ghetto, I saw four, 4! drug deals going down, and got nervous since it was the same car each time, and it appeared to be following my path, or I was following its path...I really didn't want to see that shit.
Mr Freeman Skit Souls of Mischief
I finally turned the right corner to leave that shit behind, and laughed at this skit, that guy sounds exactly like him!
Rental Car Beck
This was such a perfect, mellow beat, that I just enjoyed it and paid attention to my footfalls, trying to roll my whole foot, trying to use even pressure on each step, and not absentmindedly limp as I have a habit of doing. I couldn't get that shit off my mind, though, so I recounted all of the awesome stuff in my life today that I have worked so hard towards, and imagined what my future will look like, so soon, when I get to say it's been YEARS since I did that shit. I practiced saying it out loud, it felt really good.
400 Bucks The Rev
Quicker pace, I was at the corner, and I wanted to get home. Just stuck with the beat. Remembered that someone owes me about that much, and laughed because it was so much like the song. He was so sweet that day.
Wurkin Fu Manchu
Yes! This was the last straw, last km. I am totally into Fu Manchu lately. I got my fists pumping and pushed with my feet. The only lame part about my Nike+ is that when I run faster, my stride length is longer, and my footfalls fewer, so it doesn't actually register that I am speeding with the wind blowing my hair back and the sweat coating my arms and legs and face and shoulders getting a cool breeze and actually chilling me. I concentrated on my breathing, keeping it even, but shallow, and not worrying about it. I did not tire like I thought I would.
Insecurities The Gits
Excellent. I kept up the pace, and even managed to sing along, rocking the last stretch home with
such grit I impressed myself. Sweat was pouring down my cheeks, I was labouring a little in my breathing, I felt like my face wanted to grimace, but I did not want to be seen making that gross face, so I kept catching myself and shutting my mouth...hahaha, sounds funny, but I noticed, and then didn't, and then noticed, and then forgot, etc...
I didn't care that my long strides would register as me slowing down, it felt great to have no pain at all and be rocking like that without dying from the effort. An amazing finish for me. No records beat, but definitely the best feeling run in a long time.
Awesome!

weird one

Okay, I couldn't write this in last night because I was feeling like a loony.
I went back out, to climb the 1km hill over again after I finished covering about 18kms of ground. My legs felt funny and my glutes were cramping up a little. I couldn't stop thinking of these hunks of yarn I ran past on my way up the hill. They looked like flowers that had been attached to a wedding car or something. That's what I imagined in my head when I saw them. Flowers. Made of yarn. Cool! I could not possibly leave them in the ditch! It was 9:56 when I left here, and the sunlight was fading.
I parked well back from the bottom of the hill. I couldn't remember where I had seen them. First I'd seen an autumn colored moth in the sand on the side of the road. They came after that.
I walked along the side of the ditch, scanning the ground in the quickly fading light. i found the moth, and picked him up, and thought, okay, one down, two to go, they were just past here. I hadn't started up the hill at this point. I carried this little moth by its wingtips, and kept thinking he'd come back to life. I set him in front of a stop sign halfway up the first hill, at Arden Rd. Still no flowers...I was so sure they were here. I kept on, up the hill. It was becoming so dark that I could tell when I was entering the glow of a streetlamp, and could actually see it fade away behind me, I had to hustle or these yarn flowers would be lost to the night!
This is where I began to really question my sanity, because, so what if they were gone? It felt like a big deal, I had to find them, rescue them. I thought, I should have found the first one by now, as I passed the school in between the two long hills. Maybe someone had scooped them already, damn! Then I thought, they wouldn't have noticed the second one! I will find it! And I trucked on, toward the start of the second incline.
My butt was killing me at this point. When I stopped my run to cool down in the river, I had not submerged my hardworking butt muscles, since I figured that would make the last 1.5 to my house unbearable, wet pants and all. So only my legs got the treat, and as my legs unwound, my glutes wound up, still collecting blood to distribute to the thirsty sinews that weren't drinking it anymore. What a gross picture in my head. I am totally bananas.
As I had just given up, and was now just going to walk up the rest of the last hill so that I would not wonder if I had only just missed seeing them, I saw it. A hunk of something in the dim light between streetlights that was not a clod of grass. I ran to it...or something like a run, a limping Humpback of Notre Dame type of run, maybe. Anyone seeing me in the darkness might have shot me at that point, in that neighborhood, when I bent and clutched the 'flower' in both hands, groaning with the effort of bending. I knew there was one more, though, and finished up to the top of the hill in the pitch darkness. There were no more streetlights. The light from the sky was only in the sky now, and behind the trees, a pale blue. I clumped back down in the darkness, feeling very strange to be seen holding a lump of ratty yarn to my chest like an eager bridesmaid. Because it wasn't fashioned into a flower of any sort, it was only a lump of yarn. And so my mission was a bizarre one, but as I came back down the hill, peering over the edge of the ditch into tangles of grass and thistles, I saw the other 'flower' and grabbed it up alongside the other one, and was infinitely glad. Such a fuckin weirdo. I completed a mission that for no reason at all, meant a lot to me to complete. Some midnight art project that I had to finish...
Fuck, it was a long walk back to the truck, though.
Here they are, my little yarn flowers:

yarn flowers

I got it into my head that I wanted to run a new loop for my long run today. I figured that maybe it would be nice to run up past Stokem to Forbidden Plateau Rd., over to Dove Cr., and back down to Condensory. I drove it in my truck to gauge the distance. The speedo rolled from something-something-something-598 to something-something-something-606. Yep, it's in miles, but that's about 13kms so I figured I would just walk more at the start and the end.
Yeah a new route!

I freaked out for awhile getting ready. Worried about my old shoes even before I decided to push it. It really is time for new shoes, the other day when I left them in my truck a piece on the back of the heel just peeled right off. I repainted them gold before I set out. They were on my feet already when I did it. It felt a little moist but cool and good. I was feeling like doing an extra awesome run anyways.

I set out and walked for half a km. Got bored, decided to run. Ran up both hills, and onto Comox Logging Rd. There was a lovely dead moth, and two sort of flowers made from yarn in the ditches...I might have to go back for those.
The Logging Rd. was sketchy, everyone speeds down there, and there isn't any shoulder for the first half. I trucked onward, it was nice, but the kms were rolling up there pretty quickly.
It fucking ruled to run across the bridge at the potholes with the sun shining off the top of the water. I really did want to jump in, and imagined flying down into the coolness.
The stretch between there and Forbidden was really long and hot. Things started to get achy, knees swelly. But there were golden fields full of sunshine and grass to look at.
At 9kms there was a nice downhill stretch. I rocked down there, and then nearly lost it at 12.
I was at 12k, feeling broken, pretty much, an still not quite at Condensory Rd. I know there is three kms at least to the bridge from there. I let myself walk, for as long as I want, I told myself. I took the One Spot Trail. I got a little wigged out, and decided to run the rest of it, kind of hurrying to get back onto the road. Ah, whatever works.
I kept allowing myself walks, but found after a bit of running, that it hurt less to sort of lope along kind of walk-run/ speed walk style, my heels were dragging a bit, so I got alot of gravel in my shoes, but I didn't stop until I got to the bridge.
Using the handrail, I lowered my stiff legs down to the riverside, sat on a rock, took off my shoes and socks, and waded in. I haven't felt that good in so long. Relief, cool waves of relief. I stood in it for five or six minutes, holding my shorts up and watching the tiny fish clear the surface all around, jumping out at the sky. When I got out, my legs felt so light, but that didn't last very long, an I slogged my way up through town to home.
I am brain dead right now. I forgot to save my music stuff. That was a long run...16kms.

little3

I couldn't breathe!
I don't know if it was the yogurt I scarfed when I woke up from my sun induced coma-nap or what, but I felt like I just could not take a deep breath in. But I kept trying to.
Fast Car- Tracey Chapman.
I remember that. I set out at sunset, nice beams coming out from behind the only bits of cloud in the sky. Same route, same stretch of road. Not boring, although I did manage to zone out. I don't remember the middle, just watching traffic, seeing the same yards go by, same trucks parked in same driveways. At The Drive-In....something.
The Kinks-a couple of songs here.
Turned around past the school, walked for awhile trying to catch my breath. Followed the single track path around the outside of the field, remembered the persistence hunters of the Kalahari, felt like one for a minute. Until I nearly barfed yogurt.
Another Beautiful Day In The Pacific Northwest- Big Business.
I love this tune, when it comes on I don't want it to end. There aren't too many songs I get that way about. It brought me home, down the side street with my eyes closed.
I stretched outside, pulling my calf muscles on the tires of my truck, enjoying the sweet smell of the summer fading into August. I feel it already, it's right on time. There's a chill, the crickets are calling, and everything seems to be tinted orange.