In the end there are scrapes and bruises. There is pain. But I’m still on my feet. – I’ve taken a sabbatical from Bicycle Eyes, concentrating on other things and sometimes nothing at all. I’ve biked and run. I’ve coached and raced. I’ve been long enough off the bike at times to miss it, and [...]
Archive for the ‘Running’ Category
Nothing at all
Posted in Running on June 18, 2011 |
There’s blue lettering on the pavement, just after the turn onto Brown Street. Boxed into a myriad of broken lines is a single word. Dig. I’m five miles into the run when I discover that instruction on the blacktop, like a message for someone in need. But there is no reason for me to dig [...]
The art of survival
Posted in Haiku, Running, tagged Haiku, Indiana, Nature, running, Westwood Park on January 23, 2011 |
Wingtips and talons leave messages on fresh snow, like Asian brush strokes. Passing over a myriad of footprints left by man and deer and raccoons, I outrun the hikers and move away from the tracks of forest dwellers, until I’m breaking trail through ankle-deep snow. There’s a stillness here, a cleanness, as if the last [...]
There are the first thoughts of Boston here, where wind bullies the snow, pushing its nose into the ditch, leaving it where it falls on the side of the road. Even though it’s only a mile across the square, I’ve not been on 625 West in years — not on foot, not in winter, not [...]
A proper medicine
Posted in Running, tagged Indiana, Nature, running, Trail running, Westwood Park on January 9, 2011 |
The geese talk, conversations like popcorn. Five hundred kernels. Maybe a thousand. I’ve covered more than eight miles of trails, running in snow marked by half a dozen hikers and a single set of mountain bike tracks. The wind is calm, yet the chill deepens slightly as silhouetted treetops begin to dissect the sun. In [...]
Winter’s mark
Posted in Running, tagged Indiana, Nature, running, Trail running, Westwood Park on January 2, 2011 |
The lake speaks, the language of early January. Extraterrestrial chatter rises beyond the trees to my left. It’s a voice seldom heard, and today I am not in a hurry. Working my way through the brush, I duck under branches and past spindly arms that snag my jacket with sharp, triangular-shaped claws. Once out of [...]
As Friday fades
Posted in Running, tagged Big Blue River, Indiana, running on December 31, 2010 |
Dusk approaches, painting the afternoon in monochromes. Everything grays. Teasel, clustering on the far side of the Big Blue River, rising to the sky while pointing to the ground. A sycamore tree, standing with hunched shoulders over the bank, recalling an iron bridge that once stood in this place. Water, scurrying past, understanding nothing but the [...]
HUFF 50K 2010
Posted in Running, tagged HUFF 50K, running, Trail running on December 18, 2010 |
The beagle rips past as if shot from a cannon — a shin-high blur of brown and white. Against a chorus of incessant baying somewhere through the trees, the four-legged projectile misses me by maybe a foot, running the edge of the trail, streaking toward the 4-mile marker deeper in the woods. I’m on the [...]
Uncertainties
Posted in Running, tagged HUFF 50K, running, Trail running on December 15, 2010 |
Days later, the dream stays with me. I’m walking down a gravel road just after dark, woods rising to my left and right. There’s no ditch here, just dirt and trees. It’s December and cold. And, I’m alone. Knowing I can get to where I’m going sooner if I run, I begin an easy stride. [...]
Tecumseh Trail Marathon 2010
Posted in Running, tagged Indiana, Marathon, running, Tecumseh Trail Marathon, Trail running on December 4, 2010 |
She runs. We return to the woods one final time, five kilometers from the finish. By now the trail through nearly half a foot of snow is worn into a trough, packed hard in some places, precarious mud in others. Regardless, the terrain keeps rolling. The path we follow scampers a rampant course, like a [...]
