Early evenings... and some Rage

Trail running back in the Carolina Beach State Park several evenings this week. Put together my own hill circuit the other night near Sugar Loaf Hill.  Charging up the sandy, dirt, and pine straw covered hills with the insouciance of a man who refuses to accept any limitations on what his body, mind, and spirit can do.  It's rapid gasps for air in the lungs and lactic acid burning in the legs on the short, steep climbs...then letting gravity take over on the down slopes... like off Sugar Loaf as she pitches toward the icy waters of the Cape Fear River. Ran the circuit twice that night for a total of ten hills.

After which I headed down a trail spur that shoots out to and parallels the river. As I came out of the woods to the section of trail closest to the water, I caught a full view of the sun all fiery and magnificent in its late day grandeur... a blazing orange ball about to descend on top of the westward horizon... a tree line on the opposite side of the mile wide river. It sent out radiating bursts of broken up oranges and yellows that crest the rippling waters in a narrow inverted V pattern towards my shoreline.

The wind blasted strong and whistled thru the scattered trees on the river's bank...as a cold front approached with more chilly winter air from the North. One older, dying gnarled tree made a deep croaking sound as I ran by. I'm reminded of the scene in the movie Field of Dreams when an old ball player asks, "is this Heaven?"

Later on the run as darkness crept slowly downward I heard the high pitched chirping of cardinals, and the friendly warbled calls of some chickadees. I headed back to my home and left theirs for the night.

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Ten miler back on the roads and back in the machinery of civilization as the work week closed. Daylight slipped again seamlessly into the night time...but I didn't take off my sunglasses. Maybe I was too cold to. I hit the pavement in the center of town and ran past a girl and a man out front smoking in front of one of the bars. Both of them looked like they were attempting to take selfies with their cell phones... as me the bundled runner with sunglasses on in the dark whooshed by. A few buildings down two guys were standing in front of the kayak rental place with a radio playing... it's Rage Against the Machine.... "and now you do what they told ya, and now you do what they told ya, and now you do what they told ya...($%#$ you I won't do what you tell me!)."  I thought of my friend Corey, and damn near burst into laughter right there in the intersection.

This is why I do what I do.