Pair of Beautiful Bradbury Runs

You couldn't ask for better weather.  The only thing I would have asked was that we could have had this weather a week ago.  Oh well.  Rick and I headed to Bradbury on Saturday, even though the group run was at Pineland.  Uh huh.  Nope.  Would love to have seen the group, but I'm not running again there till next year, well, maybe a fall 6 - 8 would be fine okay.

For such a gorgeous day, we were surprised to see so few cars in the parking lot.  We opted for the Scuffle course.  It's been a while since I've run the whole course in the right direction.  I don't know how many times I commented on how beautiful it was.  Not long ago, I had posted about the new green looking so strikingly pretty against the dark, wet trees; it had nothing on the bright green leaves against the brilliant blue sky. 

I was prepared to need to walk.  I told myself I was recovering.  But, damn!  I felt pretty good.  Rick and I hardly pushed the pace, but ran along at a respectable, yet, surprisingly easy pace.  I had some little tendon-type pains around my knees and left hip, but that was it.  We had a great run.

Today, we headed back to Bradbury, looking forward to meeting up with Karen and Alan.  Not long after we pulled in, Pokey came over and introduced himself.  He's a friend of James, who suggested he try some of the group runs.  We explained what we were planning and that we were waiting for two more.  Meanwhile, TM Tom Whittaker came over to say hi.  He'd just finished up a run.

When Karen and Al showed up, we discussed the route, then headed off to run the Connector to the power lines.  The run was filled with chatter and appreciation of the trail.  Karen and Alan peeled off close to 2.5 miles in.  Karen is still building distance.  Somewhere on our return, I had a stretch where my running felt just right, like I was totally recovered.  Nice.  It didn't last the entire run, but, it sure felt good.  Heading up the summit, I felt more knee and ankle twinges.  That's fine.  I'd still say this is by far my easiest recovery.

Back at the start, we sat at one of the picnic tables having some water.  I saw a thin, Bradbury Blizzard tshirt-clad person heading our way.  Ryan Triffitt!  He pointed out Sam and Danielle over by the playground.  They made their way over as Pokey came back from his car.  He stayed for a brief introduction before heading out.  We stayed to chat a bit longer with the Triffitts.  Another perfect day at Bradbury Mountain : )