Monday, February 14, 2011

Running Free

Finally, the weather I've been waiting for arrived Sunday. Despite layers of melting ice and slush all over the landscape, I found some time to return to running. Who knows how long the snow will take to melt, but we're supposed to hit the low 50s later this week, and that's OK by me.

As I've been doing since the Akron Marathon, I wore no watch and just ran aimlessly, going where my feet's muse took me, down the brick road to the edge of Mount Peace cemetery, past the holy mackerel painted on the retainer wall, through the well-off neighborhoods of West Akron, down the Bastard Garman Hill, over the slushy back streets as I wended over to Market Street, and up the endless incline of unshoveled sidewalks back home. I hopped puddles and bounded snow piles.

Neighbors -- and when you're a runner, everybody you see are your neighbors -- were out scrapping the ice from their driveways and were especially joyful to be outside and not cold. I wore shorts. One woman said as I passed, "I almost decided on shorts today too." The enthusiasm of the thaw always brings a smile to my face.

In my overexuberance, I may have overdone it. My legs felt like gelatinous goo afterward, and my core was so tight that my bellybutton hurt if I stood up too straight. But damn, it felt good.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent. Now that the weather is cooperating, perhaps we can get back to some booze fueled rants!

Jen Feeny said...

"Neighbors -- and when you're a runner, everybody you see are your neighbors" So true!!! Glad you had a great run, even if you did get overzealous!

Al's CL Reviews said...

So, shoes or no?

Jess said...

Nice job getting out there!

misszippy said...

Nothing better than the first run of the season in shorts! Hopefully the start of an official thaw.

The Sean said...

amen!

Spike said...

It is on days like that when more than just the hard core runners step outside, and I love to see them eagerly enjoying the first run of the year...it helps me forget that I've been running in snowy crap for weeks.

Did that sound bitter? ;)