Great Minds

Since we returned from Atlantic Beach two months ago, my running has been hit or miss.  Cold and windy conditions have persisted longer than expected, and there has been a lot of stress in our lives.  But this past month I have pushed a little harder and am seeing some improvement.  I ran up Big Bearpen on April 6, again last week, and a third time this past Monday.  Running hills never fails to improve overall running!

It is still cold for May - temperatures at 9:00 a.m. for the next few days are predicted to be in the 30s, bottoming out at 32 degrees on Sunday, Mothers Day.  We both decided that today, rather than Saturday morning, might be a better day for a long run, and I wanted to push myself again.  I had no definite route in mind, so I turned at the Episcopal Church, then left at Townsite Apartments, and up Sixth Street to Chestnut Street.

I'm not sure at what point I decided to run down Chestnut to Fourth Street, and continue past the Ball Park on the Cashiers Road.  But I realized it might be nice to run all the way down Cullasaja Drive to Mirror Lake and then climb back up to Town again, perhaps four or five miles in all and a route I have not explored in many months.  Long, rambling runs can be wonderful that way, turning this way and that by whim, taking in new construction and landscaping along the way, pausing to admire an especially nice wall or fence.

It was a trip down Memory Lane, too.  I have run on these same roads many times, and I could not help but remember pleasant afternoon concerts in the Episcopal Church and social hours with Martha's aunt Anne in Townsite Apartments.  On Cullasaja Drive, I ran past the home of Mayor Buck Trott, who died in 2016 - we fought some good battles together when I worked for the Town!  Here was where that lady used to live who would put plastic eggs out all year long by her mailbox - what was her name? - she used to bring her little dog into the Town Hall and let him walk around on the counter.  And so my memory wandered with me, a comfortable companion, as I ran along the shore of Mirror Lake, out to the bridge, and then back up Raoul Road to Oak Street, climbing up what Ruth and John Fox, long-ago friends who lived in the Mirror Lake area, used to call Heart Attack Hill.

I did not suffer a myocardial infarction, thankfully, but my legs were a little tired by the time I reached Oak Street, then turned on Third Street, down Main Street, and back to the Park where I noted that Martha, who had started later than I, had parked.  Five miles.  "What an epic run!" I said to myself.  I drank half a bottle of gatorade and felt so good that I ran around the block again, past the Episcopal Church and Townsite, another mile.  When I had finished, I drove around our usual route and a mile or so out from the Park I saw Martha.  "Have a good run!" I said, rolling down the window.  I thought that she must have gotten a late start to only be that far along.

When I had gone to the Post Office and returned home, I was surprised that Martha was already home, starting lunch preparations.  "How was your run?" she asked.  "I had an epic run!" I said, and then proceeded to describe to her the exact route I had run, in great detail, this turn and then that turn, which only another runner has the patience to endure all the way through.  "What about you?" I asked.  "I had the same idea as you.  I ran down Cullasaja to Mirror Lake and back!"  It turned out that, with minor variations, we had completed the same run; she had been nearing the end of her own six-mile run when I had seen her.

Great minds think alike!  And run alike.