A Tale of Two Runs

It was the best of Runs, it was the worst of Runs, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . . .

Run number 1:  I was in a great mood for a run.  Mostly because this was a bonus run.  You see I had to pick someone up in Augusta, GA on my way to Charlotte,NC for an 11 am meeting.  That's a lot of driving, which means I would have to get up early and I would be in my car all day because I had more meetings...which means no run.

But I outsmarted them.  I drove to Augusta the night before so I could get up early and run.  Sure I got in late and sure I didn't sleep well in the hotel, but I was in a great mood.  Out side it was raining...but not bad at all.  I was in a great mood.  Well, OK, there was a busy road outside the hotel and not a sidewalk in site.  That's OK, I'm in a great mood.  I ran a half mile and had to doge my way through a construction site that was covered in mud.  That's OK, I'm in a great mood.  After a mile I had to turn back because I almost got hit by a car that ran a red light...and now, I'm not in such a great mood.  Damn, back through the construction site again...just how much mud can collect on my shoes.

OK, this is a horrible place to run; the weather sucks, Its too dark and the road is too busy.  I'll duck into the fitness center at the hotel and finish up on the treadmill.  OK, now I am wet from the rain, it is stifling hot in the fitness center and the guy next to me smells funny and insists on watching CNBC at a volume that I'm sure the entire hotel can hear.  I'm in a bad mood.  This run sucks.  How am I going to get all the mud off my shoes when 3 miles on the treadmill wouldn't get it off.

Run number two:  The next day I'm still in a horrible mood.  I have spent the past two days in the car from 6 am until 10 pm and tomorrow I will have to do the same.  I don't even know what the city I'm in looks like because I drove there in the pitch black through twisty little country roads covered in mist.  While I was driving I developed a sinus headache that felt like my face was being swallowed by some prehistoric beast.  This sucks.  I got up in the morning and said screw it...I'm not going to run.  Well I'm up already, I'll just look outside.

After the lesson of yesterday, I asked at the front desk where I could run near the hotel.  "Oh you can't run here.  The road is too busy and there are no sidewalks."  That sounds familiar.  "I would drive five min. away."   This sucks...I hate driving to run, I'm in a bad mood.  So I steal barrow a hotel towel and hop in the car trying to follow the directions given to me.  This sucks.  It's a lot colder than it was yesterday and I made the mistake of wearing my warmer close during my last ill fated run that left me wet and sweating in a heated fitness center.  So now I'm shivering in shorts and a windbreaker.  This sucks.

I get to the end of the street and it is really dark out, but as I get out of the car I notice a boat heading out to the ocean.  Kind of nice...but it's really cold out and this still sucks.

The wind is whipping around me as I run through some really cool looking houses.  I kind of wander through a neighborhood lacking in streetlights, but I can see from the quaint porch lights of the houses.  Every now and then I am rewarded with a view of the ocean and a burst of cold wind that by now I am getting used to.  This doesn't suck so bad.

OK now the sun is up and the biting wind kind of feels...refreshing.  I am running pretty slow and without direction because I am taking in the sites.  With the sun up the waterfront looks beautiful.  I stop to read some historic markers and trot out on a little boardwalk over the march.  The view of the sun coming up through the masts of the boats in the harbor takes my breath away more than the biting wind could.

These pictures from my non-working phone don't even come close to doing the view justice.  I snapped them after I got back to my car and the sun was already up and I didn't have time to drive to some of the best view I saw, but I had to try to capture the moment.  Because, by now I was in a Great Mood.