One Lucky Runner: An Entry in 3 Parts

This is where I get to run every day.

On one of my first times out to the C&O Towpath at Great Falls National Park, I told myself, I'll just run to the end of the towpath and turn around. Ha! Had no idea that this lovely, flat, woodsy/river-y path goes on for 184.5 miles. That woulda been a heck of a run!

Since then, though, the towpath's been a great companion on long runs. In warmer weather the first 2 miles of it on the Maryland side of Great Falls are busy with folks walking, biking (and some running), and then once you get past the falls overlook, the crowds drop off, and it's mostly just you, the ducks, occasional lone runner, and historical landmarks. Oh, and if you're lucky, you can also stumble upon beavers (I have!), deer, songbirds, squirrels, and herons. Go for a long run on the towpath in the snow? Magic. Quiet magic. Get stuck out there after dark? Suddenly you find the will to run those last 6 miles back to the car way faster than you thought you could. :)

I made it back before dark Wednesday night, but I wasn't out of the woods yet ...

One Out of Shape Girl

The weather was nice and crisp for my run on the towpath at around 7, when I took the pictures above.  I was excited about getting out there again. I only went for 4 miles, and if I had to rank the run on a scale of 1-10 (10's the highest), I'd only give it a 4 or 5. Stuff that shouldn't have been hurting was hurting. It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't great (often when I've been away from running a while, my first run back out goes really well). This time I felt heavy and tired quickly on. But it wasn't impossible.

Until I got home, and I got sick. For those of you who don't know, running sometimes makes me sick. Literally. :) It's a long story, but it can set in 30-45 minutes *after* my run's already over, and often I get no indication that I'm going to be sick till then (I've had runs go great, and then I get home and am out for the count). Doctors and running coaches can't figure it out, I've had tonsa tests, and nothin.' It started in 2003, and for a number of reasons (long process of deduction here), I think I have to build up my mileage very slowly to sidestep this sick thing.

Suffice it to say, it was a bad night. But this brings me to part 3 in this entry: 

One Good Bird

I was feeling awwwwful, but wouldn't you know, my senegal Squirrelly stayed with me all night, keeping me company with comforting little nighttime birdie noises (you bird-lovers will know this as beak grinding ... as well as little peeps and chirps). You Squirrel-lovers will know why this is so remarkable: this little bird is usually NOT quiet ... especially at night. He can be a beast (a cute one, dammit). But I like to think that he sensed that something was wrong with his mom and was therefore being a good boy. :)

In any case, Wednesday night was a mini-wake-up call for me that I'm going to have to take this build-up back to the marathon much more slowly than I'd originally intended, going out for 2-3 miles at a time and steadily adding the miles, as much as I hate to go that slow. Trouble with this sick thing is that even if my body feels fine with the mileage during the run, I can still get sick later. So I'm going to have to take it frustratingly slow ... maybe that'll make success all the sweeter when it comes? This means that this year's Philly Marathon is likely not in my future ... but I still have plenty of time to meet all my other goals/mile-markers.

In the meantime, I'm going to count myself lucky that I can run, and that I've got a gorgeous national park and a lovely, bad little bird on my side.