Daytona 100 – Page 5

6/12/18

Amazing day today. Amazing place. This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I said to myself that it definitely was the most beautiful place I’d been when I was up there in the clouds, but I really have to think about it now. I’ve been to some beautiful places, so I’ll hold back on giving it the final award. Although the views were spectacular, the majority of the trail was not suited to running, at least for me. I was able to run the first 2 miles. A 2 mile work road leads up to the trail I was starting the climb on. It was significantly steep for me but I got up there with no issue. I ran the last mile as well. It was on the same work road. Everything in between the first two miles and the last mile, I had to power hike.

Here’s why – Continue reading “6/12/18”

6/11/18

Covered bridges are a thing here in Vermont and my mom gets super excited about them. This one is actually functional. We saw a car about to pass through it (cause you can’t really go over it like a normal bridge) and we were a little nervous because it’s made mostly of wood. Wood is strong I suppose. The car passed through, and then another, and another, and the bridge was still standing afterwards. I’m not an engineer, but being inside the bridge, I can tell that the covered part of the covered bridge is structurally important, right? There were all sorts of crossbeams in there holding everything together. Enough.

Today is usually a day off but I ran anyway. Continue reading “6/11/18”

6/10/18

I think I will always be a trail runner first. Then a runner.

I lost the concept of time today out there. I forgot about the job search. I got rid of all the bullshit. Yeah, this happens when I run at home, just not to this degree. I’ve been reading Run Gently Out There by John Morelock, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from emulating Morelock’s style and voice right now. Not only would I fail at his game of botany, ornithology, phenology (a word I learned from him), and poetic prose as one stream of thought, I would be betraying my own style and voice (still in development stages). So, this is turning out to be a paragraph about writing rather than running. And that’s good. Because, I can only use my own two feet to run, as much as I pretend I can run as fast as someone else or as far as someone else. And, I can only use my own words and my own voice to write, all the time keeping in mind those who influence me and inspire me. Right now, everything running and writing is all mixed and tangled together. Like it should be.

I started on the wrong trail. I realized I was on the wrong trail after three minutes, when I didn’t see any white blazes. I’m lucky it only took me three minutes. I backtracked to the trailhead for a clean start and pledged to keep an eye out for white blazes from then on. Continue reading “6/10/18”

6/9/18

What a great run today. I don’t know if it was the excitement for my trip tomorrow or just everything clicking like it does sometimes. The pace wasn’t particularly fast but I felt good the whole time. I kept some energy held back for traveling tomorrow; travel always wears me down and I have a 10 mile run after I get settled in at the resort.

Overall, 16 miles at 10:23 pace. I ran the first 10 miles, only stopping to take a few photos, with no walk breaks. I have this new approach that I enjoy: Continue reading “6/9/18”

6/7/18

After very little searching around, I found out that the plural usage for ibis can be a few different words. There’s no wrong answer almost. I’m going with the one I think sounds best. Here, we see a trio of ibis (collective plural) making their way across a brick street in St. Petersburg, Florida. Continue reading “6/7/18”

6/6/18

I don’t know, this tree looked like an octopus close up, or Shiva. I took a slightly different route walking Griffy today and saw it on the way back home.

No Jesse today, his plumbing exploded in one of the bathrooms yesterday and he had to bust up all the tile and fix it, then replace all the tile. That’s the good thing about renting, no need to fix stuff when it breaks. I wouldn’t even know where to begin, though. More power to him.

I ran 6 miles today at 8:00 pace and I worked hard for it. Continue reading “6/6/18”

6/5/18

I have thousands of photos on my phone just sitting there taking up space. Every now and again, I look through them and enjoy remembering the time that they came from and what the mood was like. I can’t bring myself to delete even the most inconsequential-seeming photos because one day I might look back and that photo might spark a memory or thought I don’t expect. Continue reading “6/5/18”