Sappy Already?

I actually wanted to title this "Church of the Holy Trail", but that would be stealing...My brother's running group in Boulder host a Sunday run in the mountains called that.  Wish it were mine.

The day started off badly.  I slept a lot last night, at least seven hours.  I woke up with a sore throat.  It had been a little scratchy the day before.  Sam was asleep on the couch, usually an indicator he's sick.  Great.  Not many days before Pineland.  I sucked on zinc lozenges, ate chicken soup that I added chopped raw garlic to just before I ate it, and drank lots of fluids. 

It also seemed like the perfect opportunity to start on Marshall Ulrich's book, Running on Empty.  I  read 124 pages before Sam woke up, not sick at all, just had a rough night of sleeping.  I reassessed how I was doing.  My throat was still sore, but not any worse.  My only other symptom was post-nasal drip.  Maybe it's just allergies.  At any rate, I decided I'll be fine for Sunday.

By late afternoon, the sun that finally broke through the clouds had the temperature just over 80.  It would be good to get in some miles to start on acclimating to warmer weather.  The fields were sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.  I was mud covered in before I crested the hill across the street.  I also pulled off my first tick around then.  But I felt good.

I ran down to the beaver pond (swamp?).  I startled a nesting pair of Wood Ducks???  They moved so quickly that I only got a second to see the male's head, but, I think it was.  I will bring the camera for sure next time I head that way.  I stood there looking at the beaver lodge and swamp.  It didn't seem like any new work had been done in quite some time.  I've been worried that I didn't tattle on the poacher early enough.  Maybe he'd gotten them all.  Wait!  There was a dark figure swimming silently towards the lodge.  At least one beaver survived!  He/she ducked under, probably entering the lodge.  Almost at the same time the beaver submerged, I heard a Pileated Woodpecker.  I looked up to see it fly deeper into the woods. 

I was surprised to find tears welling up in my eyes.  James had described his Easter day run as his church.  I attended the same church that day.  Today felt like I was at The Church of the Holy Trail.  I usually am very emotional (very) for at least a week after the 50.  I couldn't believe I was already feeling so emotional before.  Pretty soon, a huge smile replaced the few tears that actually fell. 

It didn't stop there; for the closing prayer, I saw two mom turkeys.  I knew they had chicks from how they behaved.  They weren't right together, but the two of them reacted exactly the same as soon as they saw me.  Instead of running, like turkeys usually do, they spread their wings and ducked down into the grass.  I'm sure they were hiding their babies with their wings.  Sure enough, the other girls I met later in the run just ran from me.

I don't believe in superstitions, I'm not religious, but somehow I felt this run was a sign that Sunday was going to go well.  Silly.