So I had a column for this month’s blog all ready to go but something happened this weekend that is forcing me sit down and put together a whole new piece. As some of you may know I am currently getting prepared for a marathon. I had a race that I wanted to do but due to an injury I had to reassess my goals for the year and now I am hopping in a different race later this year. Anyway, that’s not all that important to the story but I wanted to disclose my current headspace.
On Saturday I was scheduled to run 15 miles and as anyone who has run and trained for a longer race there are plenty of days you wake up and just don’t want to go run. The idea of going out by myself and running 15 did not sound like a great time. I got up early and headed out feeling sluggish and not very motivated. I parked at the Tahoma Farms parking lot and started my run up to the newly opened Wakefield Valley Golf trail. This is the old golf course here in town that closed last year and is now open to the public as a running and walking trail. My original plan was to do a few miles on the trail and then add a 12 mile loop around town. As soon as got out to the trail and did one loop around on the old cart path something changed.
I guess I should back up a second and talk about what the Wakefield Valley Golf Trail. The golf course closed down a year or so ago and is now owned by The City of Westminster. They locked up all the buildings on the course, cut the grass and made loops connecting the cart path around the course. So now when you show up there is a big map on the old starters shed with color coded loops with a few different distances. You can now pick a distance you want to run and just follow the marked lines that are all around the path.
I had plans just to do the outside loop, which is about 2.5 miles around. It was so peaceful and pretty running around the course I had no choice but to stay out and keep running. To have a place like this that allows you to run or walk for miles without seeing a single car is pretty fantastic. When I was on my first loop I saw what I thought was a pterodactyl (turns out it was a heron) as well as other smaller furrier animals. I saw the morning mist coming off Lake Moore and Moore’s Pond (pretty sure that’s what they are called). I honestly felt as if I could run out there all day if not for the fact I needed to come back and get ready for work.
It felt like it had been a long time when I just ran to run. When you are training for a race or even just training to get in shape there are a lot of times when it just feels like work. This run totally rejuvenated me and I’ve been back out there a few times since. We talk a lot about keeping fresh, healthy, hydrated and all kinds of physical parts of running. Sometimes it’s important to take care of yourself mentally and this run helped me get back to feeling like a young newbie who was running out for the simple joy of running.
So I am challenging anyone who is feeling in a running rut to head over and get back to the basics of what we do. Leave the watch in the car if you need to and just run. I hope to see you out there!
