Mid-October in Highlands

Today I did something a little unusual - I ran twice in one day.  This is not the first time I have doubled-up, and one member of our running club uses this method to increase his mileage without (he claims) risk of injury by splitting up longer runs into more manageable sections.

At 9:00 a.m. I met a man named Derek at Town Hall and ran three miles - he had contacted me through our website, as many visitors do, and wanted to run any distance, any pace.  It turned out he was a friendly but very serious marathon runner in his 40s, so we talked about his upcoming race in January and mine in November as we ran the usual loop around Harris Lake.  It was drizzling a little and he said he appreciated me showing up under these conditions, but actually it was almost pleasant and I was a long way from being soaked when I finished up.  The forecast for tomorrow is for heavy rain, though, so looking at my weekly schedule I realized I could get in a second easy run in the afternoon, when the light drizzle had disappeared, and not sacrifice mileage.  I have to admit the second run at 3:30 was a little "iffy" starting off, but in a mile or so I fell into a rhythm and ended up feeling just fine.

The Fall colors are beautiful in Highlands right now, and it has been an absolute joy to watch the gradual transformation of trees along our running route into deeper and deeper shades or orange and red.  This maple on the corner across from Town Hall has always been one of my favorites:

Day tourists were everywhere, wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas against the fine drizzle, and the morning air was filled with the aroma of roasting coffee from Mountain Fresh and the savory and spicy scents of lunch just beginning to be prepared.  On the corner across from the Presbyterian Church, four tourists were lined up shoulder to shoulder, taking photographs on their phones of these gorgeous trees.  Beautiful!