Up early for my Saturday sunrise run, got to the parking lot before 6:00. Sun just peeking over the trees & buildings, fishermen putting in their boats, pelicans after their bait, it’s good to be up so early. Nice temp this morning, mid 70’s, slight breeze. Knocked out 5 miles before the sun was up good. Seeing a lot of dolphins lately, I see the small fish jumping first, a flash of silver out the corner of my eye, then I’ll see the dolphins that are chasing them.

Been thinking lately of trying to do a full marathon. I like the half, it’s a good distance, long enough to be serious but not so long as to be obsessive. The Jazz half in New Orleans is my favorite & not just because it’s near my birthday. It’s just a really fun party & being so near Halloween, lots of runners are costumed & being it’s in New Orleans, lots of the costumes are . . . interesting. Anyway, the Rock n Roll Marathon is in New Orleans in February, I may try to do it.

Have a lovely day!

so, today this great lumbering brute of a country moved another increment forward; today, in our convoluted meandering fashion we managed to put the needs of others above our own selfishness. There will be screams of anguish & the gnashing of teeth & there will still be setbacks to come, but those screamers & gnashers will become more & more irrelevant as they always do. It is an ongoing mystery to me that they do not recognise themselves, that they do not look at the old films of klansmen & segregationists, of the schemers & haters, the small minded bigots who love their little power & can only hold onto it by denying someone some small something, that they do not see themselves in these images & know that they are on the wrong side. 

cooler today than it was tuesday, only 92 when I went to run. Poured some water on my head at about 3.5 miles, thought I heard angels sing.

Today is astonishingly hot. I understand that the high was 99, this afternoon when I arrived at the beach it was 96. We are still getting wind from the tropical storm but it felt like the rush of hot air from an oven. It is hot enough to bend light, making the seawall seem to ripple in waves. It is breathtakingly hot.

So, I went for a run. 

Sunday longer run got done yesterday, I’m just now getting around to posting it.  We had something of a busy weekend, my 7 year old son had his first “party”, inviting some friends over Saturday afternoon.  We bought inflatable pools & cooked burgers & hotdogs.  It was a big success.  At one point he turned to me & said “you’re good at this party stuff, Dad.”  I didn’t mention that I’d had some experience.  Anyway, yesterday was cleanup & take a nap day.

It was windy & the tide was much higher than usual, but other than that I couldn’t see any effects from the tropical storm that’s in the Gulf.  I’d left Astral Weeks on the ipod & reloaded Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home.  It was cloudy which made for a nice sunrise to run into while listening to Astral Weeks.  Got to see some Dolphins chasing a school of Mullet & my usual Pelicans & Herons & Gulls.  I was tired & settled into a nice slow easy pace, enjoying the music & the scenery.  It’s a blessing to have a place like that to run.

lovely morning for a run, good temp in the mid 70’s, light breeze, but even w/ all that I found myself struggling. Didn’t eat very well yesterday evening, just a sandwich, & didn’t eat anything before my run this morning so that was a factor. I was feeling empty at about 4 miles & thinking I might should walk a bit when I was passed by a fit young woman in a pink skort. Guy runners call that getting chicked. I don’t mind getting chicked, I often find it inspiring, One of my favorite signs I’ve seen at a half marathon said:

This is easy,

just find a butt you like

& follow it for 13.1 miles!

So, I finished strong & feeling young. Thankfully, she was running about a 9:15-9:20 pace, any faster than that & I might have killed myself & this would be an entirely different post. Have a wonderful day!

neighborhood sunrise run done, good temp, birds, & turtles.  No pain in the shins I’m glad to say.  I’m liking the variety I’ve got going now, running just once a week around the neighborhood has made that a much more refreshing run & doing the beach runs at different times of the day helps to keep that from getting old.  In the Fall, I think I want to add a trail run.  There’s the 10 mile (5 in, 5 out) Tuxachanie Trail just north of here that might do nicely, at least until hunting season opens.

Finally getting back out for an afternoon run after missing them all of last week as I was busy being the dutiful Daddy. Today, my wife got in on time to take our young man to his Taekwondo & I can get back on my regular schedule. Last week I added a 5 mile run on Saturday to make up for one missed. I enjoy the weekend sunrise runs & I think I will keep a 5 miler on Saturdays which will put me at 25 miles weekly. I can promise you that I never thought I’d hear myself saying that. It wasn’t that long ago that the notion of running for 3 miles seemed like something only crazy people do. I’m hoping (a little anyway) that keeping the mileage up during the Summer will pay dividends when I do my usual half marathon in the Fall. I’m not one to worry about time, I’m at peace w/ my slowness & even have a tortoise tattooed on my left calf as my “running tattoo”, but it would be nice to at least approach the 2 hour mark. My fastest half was 2 hrs 16 mins. We won’t talk about my slowest.

So it was a good beach run, hot as um, the dickens whatever a dickens is, but done. Don't suppose they meant Charles do you? My shins were hurting badly at first, even stopped at the 2 mile mark to stretch a bit. Let up after that & didn’t have any more difficulties.

Busy day, Father’s Day, so I’m just now getting to this.  Had a very nice day, starting at 5:30 when I got up for my run.  It’s my long slow distance run, so I loaded up Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks & Graham Parsons GP on the ipod.  Don’t know why that seemed appropriate, there’s nothing particularly similar about them, but the two albums actually worked well together.  Contemplative I guess, & well suited to my needs.  

It was a beautiful morning, & quiet.  Got to the beach by 6:00 am, everything was just waking up.  Light breeze & a great temp (69 degrees) made for a good start.  Headed out East, running into the sun, watching the pelicans & other shore birds fishing as well as a few fishermen w/ cast nets or wade fishing.  Usually, I’ll have the ipod on shuffle, but neither of these albums work well that way.  I listened to Astral Weeks as I watched the sun rise & then Graham Parsons on the way back.  Made for a very nice run.

Father’s Day was wonderful.  At 53 years old I’m the very proud father of a 7 year old.  Having a child late in life, I appreciate the honor maybe a bit more than I would have earlier.

very nice beach run, sunrise, birds, breeze, nice temp, did 5 miles, the last half mile I was belting out Back in the USSR w/ Paul & the boys. Seemed to have made an older couple happy. “take me to your Daddy’s farm!”

Up again this morning for a sunrise run, started out w/ the sky just beginning to lighten, crescent moon & some herons or cranes flying over on the way to the bayou to fish.  Three miles & some twenty some odd minutes later, the sky was pink & orange & the neighborhood birds were fully awake.  Speaking of neighborhood birds, I went out when I got back to check on the baby birds I rescued yesterday.  We have a small vegetable garden that has a fence around it & they had settled in there yesterday evening.  I was worried that they may have experienced a cat or raccoon overnight but they were still there this morning.  I put some water in there & some bread crumbs.  Don’t know what I’m going to do, I have squash I need to pick!

6.12.12 Tuesday afternoon.
It’s been raining here since Friday, 5 days & counting!  Saturday & Sunday we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 inches.  I got up @ 5:30 Sunday morning to get my 7 miles in, stood for a while at the kitchen window watching the rain fall & the lightning flash.  “You know,” I told myself, “I do this for fun.  I do this because I want to.”  Then I went back to bed, because I wanted to.

That’s OK.  I do run for fun & because I want to & I really missed that run.  I told myself I’d try to get it in if it slacked off later but I didn’t.  It kept raining, the family had stuff they wanted to do, yada yada yada.  It’s not that I don't run in the rain, in the winter that’s a deal breaker but in summer rain’s fun & grown ups don’t get that many chances to play in it.  Running single mindedly down the seawall in a downpour, I may look like an idiot but I can tell myself I look determined or committed, even hardcore.  Dancing around in the yard doesn't offer that opportunity for self-delusion.  It wasn’t even the lightning, I’m kind of stupid that way, I like lightning right up until it gets too close which is about an hour after I should have sought shelter.  No, I didn’t run because at that moment, getting back in bed seemed more attractive than getting out in a torrential downpour.

6.12.12 Tuesday evening.
I was really looking forward to this run. I didn’t get to run.   My son has a belly ache.  Daddys are flexible.

6.13.12 Wednesday morning. 5:00 am.
Finally!  Managed a short & quick 3 miles at sunrise.  Birds waking, herons flying over, raccoons straggling home, got home & rescued a turtle & 2 baby birds from the dog . . .  all before breakfast!  

muggy & overcast this afternoon, little or no breeze. Surprisingly the run went quickly & at what seemed to be a good pace for this time of year (I slow down considerably in the Summer). 

Wednesday morning sunrise run done, HOT!  78 degrees, 94% humidity, no breeze, a long hot summer looms ahead.  During June, July, & August I pay for my pleasure.  

Heard a news segment this morning about Germany’s Pirate Party.  Thought it was interesting that the complaint against them seemed to be largely that they didn’t fit either into the Right or the Left.  Our US political system has come to depend on the deep divisions, which are in fact relatively few, while ignoring the things we hold in common.  

We would benifit, I think, from a close look at who profits from this division.  Beyond the obvious perpetrators & profiteers such as Fox news or MSNBC, who stands to gain by keeping our attention on the things that divide us?

Back, sadly, from a quick mini vacation on Santa Rosa Island & missing it already. It’s one of my favorite places, a perfect combination of good food, natural beauty, & beach life. The Gulf water was wonderful, clear & blue green, light surf the first day & heavier the next, watched Osprey fish & bring the catch back to the young ones in the nest, & ate oysters at Flounder’s & Peg Leg Pete’s till I had my fill. We camp at Fort Pickens which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore Parks. It’s a very nice little campground, clean & quiet & a short walk to the Gulf on one side & the Bay on the other. The Park area is pretty pristine, sand & scrub oaks, all sorts of birds, Cranes, Herons, Osprey, you name it. Up the road a ways is Santa Rosa, condos, hotels, & laid back beach clubs, good food & good times. Had hoped I’d get to try paddle boarding this trip but wasn’t able to fit it in. Something to look forward to next time!

Tonight’s run went well enough, rough headwind on the return & think I lost a layer of skin to the sand but it got done. Our local beach is a poor substitute but still better than none at all. 

Great Googly Moogly! What a beautiful morning! 64 degrees, light breeze, sun rise crisp & dry after all the rain. World washed clean & sparkly, water flashing blue & silver. Pelicans, cranes, fishermen, shrimp boats strung across the horizon. Felt like going for more but stopped at 7 miles because I have big important things to do today! Later!