Makes running on the bike path seem downright dull, doesn’t it?
Monday night’s snow showers and accompanying cold snap ruled out a bike ride yesterday morning. Instead, I bundled up and headed to John Bryan State Park, to run the hiking trails by the gorge. While the cold took some getting used to, the beauty of the forest in early winter, with its dusting of snow, was inspiring.
I slipped and tripped my way through a little over 4 miles, following the North Rim trail out to its end and back, and on the way realized how long it’s been since I ran like this. I’ve run hard all this year, for training and racing. But I haven’t done much trail running, and I’ve done almost no running for fun. While part of the point of this run was to log some more miles for my Movember campaign, it was conspicuous in what it wasn’t. It wasn’t prep for a race, it wasn’t meant to address any one area of a training regimen, it was simply a run for the sake of running.
Because of that, I found it strangely freeing. I stopped to take pictures or admire the view whenever I felt like it, ran as hard or as easy as I wanted, and felt no guilt over my relaxed pace. It was a nice change from a year spent with such focus and purpose. Best of all, my hip only hurt a little, which maybe means that it’s healing up again.
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