November 17, 2007

Saturday, November 17, 2007

If anybody has a nicer 5k route from their front door, I’d like to see it.

A friend called this morning asking if I’d help him tow his truck to his mechanic, so I was outside in the cold wind and snow most of the day. Then we hung out at my place tasting homebrews. He took off at 3:30. If I leave to run exactly at 4 (5 by my watch), I know the timing will be perfect for enjoying the sunset. Perfect. I’ve noticed my first sore spot – my lower back. I take the time for a good stretch (I love you Jim Wharton) and I’m out the door at exactly 4:03 (5:03 by my watch). The day is crystal clear and cool, about 25-30 degrees, with no wind to speak of. Absolutely perfect. And I feel good! Before I’ve run 400 m, I’ve broken out into laughter 4 times because everything is so beautiful. The road I live on is exactly 1.6 miles long. It runs along a ridgeline bordering the eastern edge of a large river valley in the middle of the mountains of northern Vermont and New Hampshire. My house is .2 mi. from the eastern end of the road, which runs up and down, but mostly up, as you run toward the western end. About a mile from my house, at the highest point of the ridge, there is a large resort hotel with 360 degree views of just about every mountain range within 50 miles. Although, to be honest, the nearby mountains to the north obscure the view of the distant mountains to the north. So my typical loop goes 1.4 miles west, then back, past the house .2 miles and back for 3.2 miles total. Accurately wheeled with splits. Well, my timing was perfect today, with every little rise, the sun would rise over the ridgeline on the western edge of the valley, and every time I would run downhill, the sun would set. I saw 5 sunrises and 6 sunsets tonight!! The high points on the road were brightly lit and open, the road clear from the sun melting the snow, while every little dip was dark, close and quiet, every tree and bush covered with thick layer of snow, the low winter sun permanently banished, at least til May. At the top of the ridge, I ran backwards for about 100 m, both to stretch out the hip flexors and to take in a nice view of Mt. Washington to the west, with the shallow setting sun in the west lighting up the mountain tops to the east. Of course, even as clear as the day was, only the lower half of Mt. Washington was visible. The top of the mountain was obviously using the observatory to try to rip gaping holes in the perpetual cloud surrounding it. Turning back around to face the setting sun, I saw hanging over the mountains of Vermont, and over the glowing red/orange sky, a line of clouds lit from behind. The center of the clouds were completely dark, laden with snow, but nearer their edges the sun lit them up light neon lights, bright reddish orange. The gradient from dark gray to bright orange was pretty severe, and looked unnatural. They reminded me of day-glo dumplings floating in the sky. I made a point to keep a 3/3 breathing pattern all through today’s run. The goal is to run as quickly as possible as easily as possible, and it seems to me to be an effective way to maximize running efficiency without the stress of running fast, plus I want to be rested for a long run tomorrow. I felt good all the way, and maintained the 3/3 except for about .5 mile where I forgot to keep the reins on. The run back had spectacular, high contrast/shadowed views of Cannon Mountain, Twin Mountains, the presidential range, and a couple others I don’t know the name of. More laughter. I’m really enjoying this. I’m about a quarter mile from my house when I see a bunch of turkeys crossing the road north. I think it’s the western flock. They hurry across when they see me coming, and a few stragglers take flight and cross the road in flutter. I count 19, so it probably is the eastern flock. I’ve never seen the western flock with more than 15 birds. I’ve slowed down to give them time to cross, and as I’m watching the turkeys to my left a deer jumps across the road from left to right about 30 feet ahead of me. The young buck bounds unhurriedly and effortlessly down the hill. I continue unhurriedly down the road. A couple minutes later, just as I’m nearing my house (2.8 miles run, .4 miles left) I see first one, then another turkey flying high across the road. High, but still beneath the treetops, as there a many old pines which were planted on our property three generations ago. I slow down again and count 8 or 9. This must be the western flock. I finish the run and stand on my porch drinking water and watching the pines. The birds I saw were in the trees adjacent my house, so I took the time to watch them. I know from living here over a year that both flocks head northward across the road near sunset. Usually they just walk, right across our yard, driveway, field next door, they’re not that shy, really – I’ve often had to wait for them in my car to cross the road. But during some weekends there is more traffic than normal, and then they prefer to fly across. What I saw today was that they fly from treetop to treetop, one or two at a time. There is this one tall pine about 60 m from my porch, and one of the turkeys flew from another treetop and landed in it, near the top. There fluttering wings make quite a lot of noise, and when I listen, I can hear them chatting it up a little deeper into to woods. Looking more closely, I saw 4 or 5 dark outlines in the top of the tree. The trees are as thick with turkeys as the moose are thick with ticks. Speaking of which, where were the damn moose today. I’m a bit disappointed in today’s run.

But seriously, it was the best run ever. I’m still laughing. I should do this more often.

3.2 miles

26:59

easy