this is highway 80 over by the rails to trails. I took this picture right after pulling up to the parking area at the rails. the rtt is directly behind me (the picture taker). If you follow this road for about 5 miles you will crash into some sand dunes and the Atlantic Ocean. That's a turtle crossing. No turtle stands a chance crossing this road, I'm afraid. People drive way too fast on this strip of highway.
Yesterday I did not run because I was just lazy. Tonight I made up for yesterday’s slackness and ran 6.35 miles at the rails to trails. I met up with a friend of mine, Nelson, at 5:30 and we headed west on the trail toward the shrine and the prayer flags. Nelson started off on a pretty good clip and held it for about a mile. Had he kept that pace I would not have been able to keep up much longer. Thankfully, he slowed down due to all the wheezing and coughing he was doing. I moderated my pace and soon left him and his wheezing and coughing far behind.
I made it to the end of the trail about a good thirty seconds before he did. I had enough time to hang three prayer flags I had with me by the time he made it to the end. We then continued running together but after the minefield of rocks I had to tread through cautiously in my blue bikilas I pulled ahead again until finishing up the run.
As I wrapped up the run I ran into Brian Welch, another runner friend of mine. He was just about to start his run in pitch dark. If I haven’t mentioned before, Brian is the most driven and disciplined runner I know. This guy is 51 years old and totally runs circles around me. Last year he ran two marathons. His finishing times were 3:10 for one and 3:16 for the other. To me, that is quite amazing especially because just three years ago a dozen blood clots were found in his right leg and one clot in one of his lungs. After a long drawn out treatment he returned to running in 2010 with a blazing time of 41 minutes for the Savannah River bridge run 10k. That is not an easy 10k! The guy is amazing. Any way, he invited Nelson and I to run an additional six miles with him but I confidently said no way. He called us wusses and bolted down the dark trail with a loud “yeehaw” shout! It was so immature.
the sun setting as I started my run.
I don’t know what to say about Nelson. He’s a strong runner but tonight he was suffering. That hacking cough and wheezing was pretty awful. As I left him eating my dust I got a little concerned that he might have a heart attack and die on the trail. I mean, he is 55 years. That’s not exactly young, you know. Any way, I began to feel a little better when way from the back of me I heard the faintest sound of hacking cough and knew that Nelson must still be alive. So, I picked up the pace and finished off my run.
Oh, I saw a rabbit during the run. And, the trail was so thick with gnats! And, it wasn’t those horrid, devil gnats that crawl under your hair and bite your scalp. It was instead those disgusting gnats that form dark pockets of clouds through out the trail and when you run through them you swallow several hundred of them. The ones you do not swallow get stuck in your moist eyeballs, leaving you rubbing dead gnats out of your eyes. It’s really quite disgusting.
Wildlife inventory:
- 1 rabbit
- 3 doves
- 1 billion or so gnats. I ate about a million, give or take.
For the first mile my legs were again very stiff – just like Monday’s run. After I loosened up everything kind of fell into place but my left ankle still bothered me some. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this ankle. It’s just not healing.
Believe it or not, this is me right after tonight's run. Can you see me?
- run log
- mapped run
- total miles on blue bikilas: 156.06
- total real miles for 2012: 40.13
- total treadmill miles for 2012: 12.72
one of the prayer flags I hung. This young girl from Pakistan died way too young. She was amazingly intelligent. At 9 years of age she was a Microsoft certified professional and was programming extensively. She died at 16 years of age. So very sad.
I wanted to talk about my yellow reflective Nathan running vest but I feel I’ve run out of time to write about it. Well, I really haven’t run out of time but I do feel like taking a steaming hot shower because I’m still kind of sweaty from tonight’s somewhat chilly run at the rtt. I promise to write about this vest soon, though. My next gear review will be about this Nathan reflective vest. And, I’ll give you a heads up, it’ll be a good review! This Nathan vest totally rocks. It does everything I expected it to do plus more! So, keep coming around because you will not want to miss this amazing gear review on the Nathan vest! It’ll be Pulitzer material.
another prayer flag I hung. The Syrian government's brutality against it's people has gone on too long. It's time for the bloodshed to end and justice to come for the people.
Thank you so much for stopping.
I wish you and yours the very best of the best.
peace,
dh
01/18/2012