In the spirit of the holiday I decided to liberate myself from good sense, caution, and the fact that I'm 58 years old and haven't run over 6 miles in a couple of months, and try a 10 miler. The logic I used to back up this wild surge of emotionalism was that - even though it's hot (88 degrees), the humidity was low (32) and there was a light wind. Therefore I should finish ok. Well I don't know about ok, but I did finish with a couple of walking breaks in the 10th mile. The heat was enough to zap the water from my body and my legs were pretty sore in the last 2 miles. It wasn't pretty by a long shot but I did finish. My time was 1:48:26 at 10:51 per mile.
I was somewhat inspired and energized by the natural world. The Maryland Meadow-Beauty pictured is one of the most common and beautiful of the summer wildflowers. It's usually seen about this time and later beside ponds and lakes. Another summer wildflower that blooms next to roadsides and in ditches was Smartweed (Polygonum sp). I haven't noticed these two species blooming this early before; but I wasn't keeping a blog before either. One of my points (or maybe the only one) in me writing this blog was to show how varied the natural world is; even on the 'same old jogging routes.'
As far as the birding world, I saw and heard my trusty Blue Grosbeak at the start of Dickcissel Field with a few House Finches in the Black Cherry trees. I'm no expert on Dragonflies but I did see quite a few Widow Darners and Banded Pennants flitting all along the dirt road.
I'm pretty excited about getting this 10 miler today. It's sometimes hard for me to get long runs in the summer. Mainly because I'm too lazy to get up early and beat the heat. But since I've been eating breakfast and waiting til 6 pm to run, I've experienced better, stronger runs. The next 10 miler won't be quite as crazy but just as liberating.
The wheel turns.
toadshade
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