Been starting to incorporate a longer run about once a week into my routine again. Running by time and not by distance... extending it out by 5-10 minutes etc. per week. Wearing my ten dollar wrist watch on such runs as to not have any inclination to think about pace.
Such runs also serve a dual function in that they let me sort of escape for awhile from the vicissitudes of life. Which I choose to do so in the sanctuary of the woods. Today its on the inner island trails and the state park trails in Carolina Beach
I get lost in the variances of the trail, the changes in vegetation, the sounds of animals. A deer appears up ahead and then bounds off and away deeper into the forest and out of site. Later I come upon a gathering of black crows... chattering and noisy as usual, but not in an kind of bothersome way. They take flight as I approach...
On parts of the trails down along the Cape Fear River towards Kure Beach I etch crosses in the sand at certain intersections... just a reminder if need be to turn on my way back. I think about occasionally coming across other markings, lines etc along trails and wonder who put them there and why. Many years ago someone had written out Merry Christmas (or maybe Happy Holidays) with pine cones on one of the trails. I was pleasantly surprised that it lasted there for many days.
Parts of the trail are narrow, deer like trails that I must duck around and under vegetation at times. The colors now are getting a bit duller, but still quite pretty in their simplicity. Before I almost know it, its time to head home, back onto the roads, back into civilization.
The machinery of it all may be exactly as I left it... but that's ok. I know where I can go again tomorrow and the next day, and the next...
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