Random 68

(Via: Larry's blog)

One or two familiar-looking trails (Bighorn?) in the video, but mostly ones I have never seen (on the other hand I might be completely wrong as is often the case. As any trail runner would attest, you either know the trail or you are lost :P...no such thing as familiar-looking). The feeling of being out there staring at the majestic mountains, crossing icy streams, slip-sliding on the snow, walking through slush and mud one minute and a gorgeous valley of flowers the next, and the easy camaraderie between a bunch of other people who had the same bright idea as you did....all in the name of running...is something quite magical and hard to describe in words. Looking forward to the time when I can run at least some of these races...or all of them.

Log-1

I haven't been really running or training much over the past year since the RR 100, though the list of races on the left bar might tell a different story. Not to brag, but all the races I ran last year...I just showed up and ran the race...treating each race as the training run for the next one with some minor runs between each....so it was just plain ol' dumb luck that I finished all of them and didn't end up with some serious injury.

Now that I'm on a self-enforced sabbatical from training for any races in the foreseeable future (a long story for another time), I decided that I need to keep doing some short runs every now and then and try to build up some sort of a regular running schedule just to keep myself sane. So on a lark, just laced up my battered old shoes (they would cry out for mercy if they could...they are/were my first ever pair of running shoes...I have put so many hundreds of miles on them literally...and I can also see all the running geeks with their mouths agape in horror that I risk running in such shoes) and decided to head out on a short (read single-digit miles) run this evening.

It was an amazing run by my standards, to say the least, even though it was slightly warm (lower 80sF) and extremely windy. And hence good reason for my first blog post about my own running :). For those of you who know my running style, I am not a fast runner but today I was just flying. Never before I think, have I covered 5 miles with such drastic elevation changes in such a short time (52 mins to be precise). And to top it off, I was feeling really happy at the end of it (have had a similar feeling only a few times in all these years of running). To me, this was like winning some major race. (Boston here I come...if only..sigh). By the end of the run I had a wide, silly grin plastered on my face, my hair all disheveled by the wind...no wonder I was getting some weird looks from people on the street, but I didn't care. All I could think of was how carefree and peaceful I felt during those moments my feet were pounding the asphalt. My favorite running haiku (source) kept playing in my head (to complete the picture of craziness...yes...I hear voices in my head... :P) and I couldn't help but marvel at how apt it was for how I felt.

I run, I escape
The crazy world fades away
My pace is my peace

I think I am beginning to enjoy this "not training" phase but I just hope I can keep this momentum going and keep getting my running fix regularly.

Disclaimer: Yes, this was a ROAD run. I do plan to explore some local trails in the coming weeks/months to avoid my transmogrification into a complete roadie :P.

In the beginning.....