Over the River & Through the Woods...
to Reba's house I ran this afternoon. A destination run, stretched out a bit along this route (plus five miles through Tinicum and a 1/2 mile of being lost) so as to be eligible to be deemed a "long run."
The weather has gotten milder, and promises to stay that way through this week. That is good news both from a running perspective and from a financial perspective, as it will help with this winter's insane heating bills. I took off in the mid-afternoon sun, which was weak and low in the sky even at 2:30. The music cued up on the iPod was excellent - Ryan Adams, Chris Knight and Gillian Welch.
But both the low-hanging sun and the music had a dark edge to them. This became more apparent as I crossed over Cobbs Creek on Woodland into the borough of Colwyn. This is the first time I had ever heard of this little corner of Delaware County, let alone set foot in it. Visually, it is a classic inner-ring suburb, with houses and store-fronts that look like NE Philadelphia which people moved to while fleeing the city and then eventually moved on again. I took a couple of wrong turns so I got to see most of this borough, like extracting myself from post-industrial quicksand.
The last five miles of the run were through Tinicum, where the shadows were getting long and the sun was getting in my eyes. Going through the woods on a double rutted trail brought back memories of September 11, where I ran on a similar trail in the early morning sun in Springfield Illinois only to come back into the hotel lobby and see the towers burning on tv. In all of my running Tinicum I never made that connection before, and from then on there was a feeling of running through a looking glass where nothing is the same as it was.
The sun was setting as I reached the sanctuary of Reba's house. Various things conspired against my running fast this afternoon, and I failed to muster any resistance to these forces. The music too lacked the drive that I usually seek in running music, leaving me content to mark the miles as they passed rather than to attack the ones still to come.
All in all, 14.5 miles in 2:03:52.
The weather has gotten milder, and promises to stay that way through this week. That is good news both from a running perspective and from a financial perspective, as it will help with this winter's insane heating bills. I took off in the mid-afternoon sun, which was weak and low in the sky even at 2:30. The music cued up on the iPod was excellent - Ryan Adams, Chris Knight and Gillian Welch.
But both the low-hanging sun and the music had a dark edge to them. This became more apparent as I crossed over Cobbs Creek on Woodland into the borough of Colwyn. This is the first time I had ever heard of this little corner of Delaware County, let alone set foot in it. Visually, it is a classic inner-ring suburb, with houses and store-fronts that look like NE Philadelphia which people moved to while fleeing the city and then eventually moved on again. I took a couple of wrong turns so I got to see most of this borough, like extracting myself from post-industrial quicksand.
The last five miles of the run were through Tinicum, where the shadows were getting long and the sun was getting in my eyes. Going through the woods on a double rutted trail brought back memories of September 11, where I ran on a similar trail in the early morning sun in Springfield Illinois only to come back into the hotel lobby and see the towers burning on tv. In all of my running Tinicum I never made that connection before, and from then on there was a feeling of running through a looking glass where nothing is the same as it was.
The sun was setting as I reached the sanctuary of Reba's house. Various things conspired against my running fast this afternoon, and I failed to muster any resistance to these forces. The music too lacked the drive that I usually seek in running music, leaving me content to mark the miles as they passed rather than to attack the ones still to come.
All in all, 14.5 miles in 2:03:52.
posted by seebo | 5:30 PM
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