It's been hard to find words to describe what this summer has been for me, thus the sporadic blog posting. I'm still not sure what to say about it all and find myself wondering whether it matters that I find the words at all. For now, I enjoy sitting with this feeling of peace in where my life is right now.
What started out as an experiment to help Matt sleep on midnight shifts soon blossomed into something more. Deep breath in, deep breath out, jump.
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| Higher than the wildfire haze! |
Moments of confronting fear lead to moments of growth. Amid all the lakes, mountaintops, and towering volcanoes, I rediscovered a little of that fearless, playful child I used to be.
I received this comment on one of my posts in July. Apparently, I'm not the only one to notice this shift.
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| The biggest compliment ever. |
Now that summer is coming to a close, I fear that I'll lose bits of this gutsy and whimsical spirit as I head back into the rigid world of speed workouts and mile splits.
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I said yes to Matt's Thursday morning plan to summit King Peak, even though the nauseating and slow drive there would take as long as the run did. It's never about fleeting views from the top; it's taking joy the little moments on the journey:
the unmistakable smell of marijuana wafting across the road as we drove near someone's farm;
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| and the greenhouses sparkling in the sunshine |
bottoming out our brand new Subaru, Ruby Sue, for the first time en route to the trail;
the stories and sarcastic sillies who always make six miles seem like one;
the PB&J and Grumpy Karen gummy worms;
the sparkling waters of the Pacific and the Lost Coast down below;
and sharing such beautiful places with such beautiful people.
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| Trio selfie. |
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| Our summit log entry. |
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| Lightning trail descent. |
14 mi, 3:37:05, 4,200 ft gain
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As summer in the mountains draws to an early close due to the CA drought and rampant wildfires in the area, I'm nothing but grateful for the opportunities I've had this summer. I hope I can find a way to carry this additional strength and playful joy into my fall training season.
4 comments:
Glad you've had such a great summer. Those views from on top are amazing!
What a great summer! I've been thinking of all my CA friends, with the weather and the fires...crazy this year. I am glad you aren't affected, and that you are able to harness your joy through it all. Midnight shifts can take their toll on a family - so glad to see you embrace the challenge of it all and come out on top :)
I'm kind of on the same schedule as you this year: trail adventures in the summer and now more structured training, speedwork, and road races in the fall. I was feeling kind of sad about that and was getting tempted to substitute more adventures for the speedwork/training, but I keep reminding myself how much better next summer's adventures will be if I've gotten faster before then. And going for a run with people who were all excitedly talking about improving their 10k/half marathon/etc times also helped! Hope you enjoy your new training season.
Linda, Three days after our trip, a wildfire broke out right off the trail. Everything is closed up as they battle the fire, it definitely doesn't look like that today!
Bobbi, There are a lot of fires burning locally and the only way I've been directly affected was a DNF due to my asthma on Saturday. It can rain any day now....
Alicia, I need to remind myself of that. Road and trail seasons compliment each other so well. I've been thinking that trails make my roads stronger but hadn't considered how it affects my trail season until you mentioned it. What's your fall goal race?
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