Running in the Cool of the Morning

I never complain about the heat in Highlands.  One day several years ago, I did complain, while I was running in something like 80-degree heat with somebody who had just returned from "Hotlanta" - Fred maybe? - who promptly informed me that he had run the previous day in the upper 90s and humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife.  I never complain.

But hot weather is here, or at least as hot as it gets in Highlands, and I have been enjoying more than ever my conversion to morning running.  As I posted on Facebook last week:

"57 degrees at my house this morning (colder than that up in Town - Art and Vicki put gloves on for the second loop!) 80 degrees at my house this afternoon. This is why I am a morning runner. And thankful to live in Highlands."

My morning run this morning was a return to the old rambling days when we used to run all over Town.  I ran all the way down Main Street, past the Post Office, and then climbed Holt Knob, in nice cool shade the entire way around the Knob and a lovely breeze blowing.  Then I ran through the covered bridge at the Bascom, stopped for water, and continued down to the Mirror Lake Bridge, back along Cullsaja - the cool, still lake down below, dragonfly-green, reminding me of the Psalmist being led beside the still waters.  I must have been in shade for well over 90% of this route. 

The cool breeze, the long shady miles.  I never complain.  I shall not want.