Early morning trace run.

It doesn't matter if the water is cold or warm if you're going to have to wade through it anyway. - Teilhard de Chardin

I went for a run this morning. It was cold and dark and windy. I left the house at 5:45am to meet Sam (and I thought Neal) at Clyde Depot on the Long Leaf Trace. This is just a hair over 2 miles from my house. The temperature dropped all day yesterday and it was 35 degrees. There was frost on the ground and the wind was howling. This was the first time that I had to pull out the balaclava for a run in Mississippi - I have worn it on the bike. As I ran in the darkness towards Clyde Depot I could hear the wind rushing through the trees. I could hear the trees creaking and bending. Did I mention that it was dark? I ran along the dark ribbon that was asphalt. It was only a micro shade darker than the surrounding dirt and pine straw. The woods sounded like something out of 'Sleepy Hollow'. As I approached Clyde Depot I saw headlights. Sam had pulled up and Steve was with him. Neal was a no show - I think because of the early time. I have ran with both Sam and Steve before. If you remember, Sam is one of the local fast guys that is in my age group - he won the 30 - 39 group yesterday - I was second - about 1:20 behind him. A very long minute and 20 seconds behind - a quarter mile is just about forever in a 5k race.

Anyway, we had a nice and easy 10 mile run in the cold and wind (just under 90 minutes for the 10 miles) . The sun came up just a little after 6AM. It was fun to swap race stories and talk about the upcoming season. We came upon one large felled tree on the trace and had to hurdle it. While this was not the fastest 10 miles I have ever run the time did go by the quickest. I think that I will try to meet up for these early morning runs more often. I was pretty happy that I was not sore from the race yesterday!

I am not sure about the bike ride this afternoon. The wind is still howling and it is still cold (four hours after the start of my run this morning and it is still in the 30's). I have a fun 3 mile run this afternoon ending at a tavern. A few guys from the run club are meeting to measure out a 5k downtown route. It will be cool to have a race downtown. I will try to get a little time on the bike trainer after house hold chores are complete.