TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Single Track Mind

Not a good morning.  To top it off, I slammed my knee in the truck door.  Hmmm.

The door broke skin, and I fell to the ground.  Really I did.  Well, I ran into the house, grabbed some ice, velcroed it around my knee then headed out to do the last school drop-off.  I just wanted to fall to the ground and cry.

When I told my husband that I slammed my knee in the door, he said, “Why did you do that?” 

Ahhh.  “BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE MY KNEE,” I said on my way out the front door.  (Our youngest was still waiting patiently in the car to go – and he wanted to go, because there was some ladybug hunting he had to do before school started).

I flipped my glasses over my teary-eyes.  And I said to myself, I’m going to run this morning with these dark sunglasses and I’m going to cry and cry.  And no one will know.  And no one will care.  And no one will say “shape-up”, or “get off the pity-potty.”  I could just cry all by myself and RUN.  Run, run, run.

CIMG0157I arrived to the park beneath blue skies with cool breezes.  Glorious, I tell you.  So much so, I forgot all about crying.  When I took off running, I focused on form and with little time to do this run,  I ran up Cholla and took all the little single tracks that detour off and back onto West Ridge. 

I can’t say that I thought about a single thing. Wait!  I did chuckle once over my husband asking why I slammed my knee.  And I did think that I am pretty spoiled.  Not that I have everything I want or that I live anywhere near lavishly.  But if you took every person in the world living right now, I am pretty dang spoiled.  So what if I have to untangle this banking thing (the thieves, I found out actually duplicated my debit card).  So what if I hurt my knee – at least I have a knee.  And it works pretty dang good.  So what if one of my sons throws a tizzy-fit and scatters all his shirts across his bedroom, exclaiming he hates them all (he actually put one t-shirt in his drawer and said this was the only one he wanted!)  I’d have to say that I’m pretty dang lucky.

I didn’t weep a single tear on my run.  Instead I enjoyed the loveliness.  I kept my head up, not only because that’s good form, but I was on the look-out for rattlers.  And I ran with glee on those single tracks that shoot off West Ridge Trail.  They were so overgrown, branches swept across my arms.

View on Cholla Trail looking down on Wood CanyonCIMG0161

Top of the WorldCIMG0177

Some single tracks off of West Ridge TrailCIMG0179

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Miles logged this morning:  6.51

5 11 11

8 comments:

  1. I've lived here for awhile and have never been to the places you run...I should change that as I've got El Morro pretty much covered by now.

    The elevation profile is beautifully symmetrical too. Nice.

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  2. I did some single track this week - I was nervous enough about rattlers that I turned my iPod off.

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  3. Ouch! Glad you could still run on that knee. :S I finally made it to Aliso last Friday... it was hot but gorgeous! I am glad that your son likes at least one of his shirts.. ;) Kids are so funny! :)

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  4. he said, “Why did you do that?” Is he related to my boyfriend?

    I am so sorry about the poor shin but I'm glad you were able to go for a run. ::hugs::

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  5. Glenn thanks for reading! I read your blog lots. Don't need to turn off the ipod, just turn it down. And keep your head up on the look out. Glad to hear you're running single tracks again!

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  6. Green Girl, maybe it's a guy thing. Because when my hubby said it, I heard my father-in-law. And if my father-in-law would have said that same thing I would have laughed. He's a funny guy. Buy for hubby to say it, well that's quite a different story!! : )

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  7. Patrick! I read your comment before Blogspot deleted it. I love El Moro. it's just a longer drive -- would run there more often if I wasn't in this extreme time-squeeze. Aliso/Wood Canyons. You should check it out. A bit different than El Moro, less ocean view. Let me know when you go, I will happily run with you (or try & catch up to you).

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  8. Kate! kids are so funnny (looking back!!!) What trail(s) did you run? Next time, if you feel like it, let me know, and I will run with you. I can show you the trails that are shady : ))

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