Sunrise and Bradbury

First, I want to give a big congratulations to my buddy, Jamie Anderson, who ran the MDI Marathon today and set a big PR. Congratulations Jamie!

Today I ran. Yesterday I did not. Some days I just want to wake up with my kids crawling all over me and have a nice leisurely time with my kids and wife. To be honest, leaving my kids asleep in bed is harder than any run I find myself on. I love to spend the waking hour with them but this is typically the only time I have during the day to get out and run. Once the kids are up, they are a full time job! So yesterday I forewent the run and hung out with the kids. This also gave me an early start on the shed construction.

This morning I awoke with less aspirations than running a marathon. In fact, when the alarm went off this morning I didn't want to leave it. However, shortly after rolling out of bed and into the car, I was ecstatic I had made that move. The sunrise this morning ranks in the top 10 best I have witnessed. There was a thin band of clouds across the sky that stopped at the coast line. The clear sky at the horizon over the water was golden while the clouds were bathed in red, orange and purple. These colors mingled perfectly with the hues of the maple leafs. Perfect. This was the type of sunrise you wish you could share with someone else because words could never do it justice, at least not my words.

As the sun rose in the sky the colors faded and I pulled in behind Tom as he arrived. We both started the run sounding like a emphysema ward at a hospital. While our pace was strong, our lungs were not. This resulted in weak legs as our muscles were not getting the oxygen they needed to keep moving. These colds need to move on. Despite this we had a nice run and decided to bail out after 9 miles and an hour and a half. Our average pace of 9:45 was slightly skewed by a couple restroom breaks and other stops. We had a few late miles in the 8:30-8:45 range that is quite a feat if you know the course. Speaking of the course, the storm we had last week downed about every leaf on the trees so the course was quite covered. Maintenance is needed and maintenance is what the course will get. Next week a group of Trail Monsters and others are headed out to Bradbury to clean up the course for race day. Anyone is welcome. Come one, come all.

And to the shed. It had all four walls, windows, but not roof. I'd love to share pictures, but none are available. In the meantime, feast your eyes on a little Andrew Bird in the streets of Paris. This guy is amazing. Enjoy!