Run for the Park

This morning's Run for the Park 5-K was a big step forward in my recovery.  My fifth race this year - one in every month so far - I completed this 5-K in a time almost as fast as 5-Ks I ran last year pre-injury, and faster by a good minute per mile (30:29) than the ones in January (33:11) and February (33:38).  My races in March and April were 4-miles and 6.2 miles, but the per-mile pace shows continuing improvement.  And much to my surprise, I took home a first-place age group award and I am actually walking around relatively pain-free this afternoon, enjoying the satisfying glow of a good race.  I have run some mile repeats recently, and Wednesday I ran an easy 4 miles with two blistering (for me) 400s thrown in:  2:05 and 2:00.  I did so well after this fast running that I may now be able to return to my weekly mix of intervals, hill runs, and long runs, which seems to work for this 67-year old Highlands Roadrunner.

It was great to see so many Highlands runners come out for this race and to be able to spend time visiting with them, catching up on those things that runners talk about:  How is your training going?  Do you have any races coming up?  Young Davis Moore won first place male (and leapt up on the stage to receive his award in a single young bound), and Carolyn Morrisroe took first place female and tied her PR.  She is a young runner and every race spells a new PR.  80-year old Jim Askew beat me by a good minute or two, and it was all I could do to stay ahead of 77-year-old Fred Motz who I caught toward the end of the first mile.  So many friends! - even Helen Tankersley showed up, all the way from Birmingham.  The only conspicuous absence, sadly, was Martha, whose asthma has been bothering her so much this month that she has been unable to complete the necessary training.

What a good day it was, though!  What could be better than that feeling of powerful, steady pushing forward through race fatigue, passing other runners and getting passed by other runners, staying focused, calling out to volunteers along the way and hearing their encouraging words, and then coming down that long exhilarating final hill on Fifth Street, rounding the corner, and crossing the finish line knowing that I could have done no more than this.

Snow and Sun

What an unforgettable run I had this morning!  It turned much colder overnight and must have been in the upper thirties up in Highlands, and there was a light splatter on my windshield.  But when I started out, the sun was shining brightly through rapidly-moving clouds, so I left my hat in the car and started around the usual loop.  In less than a mile, it had begun to snow.  When I turned a corner, the sun was shining again; another corner, and it was snowing, actually a mixture of sleet and snow which I felt on my hatless head.  Coincidentally I had just been telling someone in the Post Office that I remembered a snow on May 5 in Highlands many years ago; folks were taking photos of each other at the time, holding daily calendars in front of them out in the snow. 

I returned for my hat and continued on another two-mile loop.  Others were out walking and also marveling at this phenomenon of a May snow.  A child near the Peggy Crosby center was running with his Dad to their car and crying out with delight, "It's snowing!"  As I ran by Harris Lake, a half-dozen geese exploded off the water, honking and flapping big wings.  I watched as two of them landed on the water and paddled toward shore, where four or five young goslings were making their way out tentatively into the lake.  The parents approached and nudged them gently. 

You don't get this kind of drama on city streets!  So thankful to be back running in Highlands.  Where sometimes it snows in May while the sun is shining.

Return to Spring

It has been so nice to return to Highlands again at one of the most beautiful times of year - everything green upon green, a hundred shades of green.  And it is good to be running on familiar roads again, waving to people we know.  We are fortunate to have a place like this to which we can return.  We all know the squalor that much of the world lives in, even in this country - we passed areas of extreme poverty in eastern North Carolina - but this is a place of great wealth and it shows when you drive into Town.  And a hard-working local middle class can still do well in real estate, construction, inns and restaurants, retail stores.  We can understand its appeal, because when you are gone for awhile it seems as if Main Street is picture-perfect.  The biggest threat for a home break-in might be from a hungry bear, according to the newspaper.   

So I was marveling this morning from our back porch at the green, green world that is Highlands in early May.  A hundred shades.  All that I can see.