Tuesday was a drizzly cold rainy day. Dark and gloomy too. The kind of day built for couch potato-ing, as I am generally inclined to do. I scraped motivation out of the deepest darkest corners of my being. No joke, this was hours of internal debate. I also worked a little later than I wanted to, and wasn't sure if I'd actually arrive on time for the run. With the hiking and trail running meetup groups, the waiting window is 10 minutes. Some organizers are more lenient, but with trail running, since I'm the slowest, I don't want to delay the group any more than I have to. I kinda put my attendance in the universe's hands.
I told myself that showing up is half the battle. Cause if I showed up, well there's no turning back. And I should show up, because the next trail run I could attend would be in 2 weeks. Just show up and you get a break (ha) for two weeks.
I got home, changed, grabbed my necessary gear in good time. Now all I would have to do is catch a taxi in rush hour traffic. Like I said, universe's hands. A few minutes passed and it was looking grim. And I was really disappointed that I would miss this run. But the universe had other plans for me. A taxi showed up and I barely got to the meeting point on time. I was happy to see another newbie to the group (we both just joined last week), because the rest of the guys looked like serious speedsters.
Our fearless leader was smart and had us take a picture at the beginning, because some of the faster guys may leave us in the dust. Fine. I feel bad for holding everyone back anyway. And then we were off!
This was our route. Something like 10 or 12 or 14 k with a climb of 2700ish feet in 1:42 (by my watch). Black's Link was fun to do in the dark, and I'd like to do it again soon. Compared to last week, it was not nearly as steep and the terrain was all pavement. So, we went a lot faster, and I was pretty tired. I had moments when I felt like turning around interlaced with moments of feeling like a genius. It's a funny thing.
The best part was running by myself through the wilderness. It was pitch dark and I made good use out of my fabulous new headlamp. I told myself to run faster than the Blair Witch, and everything would be ok. And I lived to tell it.
No comments:
Post a Comment