Muddy Trails and Sunshine

Shoe du jour, post run

The temperature hadn't quite yet gotten up to where it was supposed to be today, but I was eager to get out on the trails.  So I donned my shoes of the day, my Adrenaline ASR 7's, which love the muddy trail grabbing, layered myself in my cool weather getup, grabbed my IPod, and my Garmin, (and oh yeah, my cell phone, I can't forget that, have to have that in order to take pictures) and headed out the door.  This time with the addition of one of my favorite running skirts thrown on over my running pants to keep my ample padding aptly padded!

Just as I'm driving to the park, the sun begins to make a bit of an appearance.   This thrills me to no end and I am very hopeful it will decide to stay out and warm things up a bit during my run.  As I pulled in and parked, I noticed something orange on the speed limit sign, then after looking for a moment to process everything I was seeing, I realized  I just had to capture it in a photo.  The first thing I had noticed was the bright orange sign indicating there is currently a trail race run going on and I'm thinking I'm either going to get run over or going to be blocking someone else's way on some of the narrower trails.  But, I am here to run my trails today and I'm not going to let a little thing like that stop me!  The next thing I noticed was the big mound of snow in front of the sign, but you can't see that too well in the picture.  I was pretty happy about that.  That meant there would be some pretty good mud on the trails today.  Yay!  Then I looked at the speed limit and saw in all caps just below it that they 'enforced' the 20 mph limit.  I'm thinking to myself, 'gee, I hope that isn't the minimum limit, because I certainly can't hit that!' Then, if you will look closely, you will see the bike trail is just ahead.....straight UP!

I'm here, I'm dressed appropriately, IPod songs are selected, Garmin satellites are located, cell phone, ID, and keys are zipped in my pocket.  Ready, set, START MUSIC/START GARMIN, Go!  What a perfect day for this.

The trails were perfect, with the right amount of wet and mud, but with enough support in them still, so as not to suck your shoes off your feet, um, well...in most places.  The temperature was great, a little nip to the air still, but perfect with all the added layers.  And I never did run into any of the trail racers.  In fact, I pretty much had the trails all to myself for my entire run until I passed another runner just at the very end of my run.  My legs felt like lead today and it took awhile for my lungs to warm up on some of the hills, but after I got going, it was a great feeling run, no leg pain and I felt very strong when I was done.  Today's goal was a two mile trail run and that's just exactly what I got in.  Right when I finished, the sun decided to make a bigger appearance than previously and I was quite certain this was for my specific enjoyment.  It started slowly, a little small, then continued to grow and shine through as the clouds parted a little at first and then a little more until, through a great big opening, a giant sunburst, just for me!  As if to say 'Wonderful job today! I'm proud of you!'  I closed my eyes and turned my face toward the sky and took a deep breath and smiled and thought, 'I'm proud of me too.'

 

And now, back by popular demand...

SUNSHINE!