First time in 1001 days

Yes.

I know my readers are an educated bunch who are up on their symbology, and are wild with curiosity with what exactly I'm trying to say here, and have no doubt assumed something that can't be discussed in such a fine, upright, high-class blog. Some of you may remember what happened about 1000 days ago. If you want another hint, click (NOT YOU SUSI!!!!) here. Don't be eating anything. I'm just saying.

That's enough hints. That is the first apple I've eaten since my bike crash that rearranged some front teeth and broke my elbow. I didn't plan for 1000 days. It just happened that someone at work brought in a huge tub of organic fruit. I just thought it had been a while since I'd eaten an apple, so I grabbed one. It was only when I got back to my desk that I realized why, and how long it had been. Now, I've had apple since then, it's just that it's been sliced up into a salad, or on a fruit pie or something. This I ate, holding in my hand, the way apples were intended to be eaten. It was amazing!

When I was walking in to work this morning I nearly turned around to go home for a bike ride. It was that perfect out. I sort of assumed it would cloud over and rain by this afternoon, but when it turned out to be another nice evening I decided I had to go out for a run. Especially since it's supposed to rain for a week.

After not quite a half hour of leg exercises, and some core which included 10 pushups!!!! (yay) I headed outside. Still nice. Sunny, warm, light breeze, it was PERFECT for a run. I didn't wear my watch or monitor, I just wanted to go run at whatever pace felt comfortable.  After a few minutes getting settled, I noticed my right knee was a bit sore across the top of my kneecap. Shortening my stride  and trying to relax my run seemed to help, and it didn't bother me again.

I even ran in sock feet for a few hundred metres, which felt oddly pretty good. My feet don't seem to mind, but you won't see me running any great distance without shoes any time soon. Without even thinking of a route, my feet took my down to bridge one (the very west end of Fish Creek Park). The water is way up. Normally during the summer it's no more than ankle deep in many places, and with any luck you can cross without getting your feet wet. Now, you couldn't pay me to wade through it.

From that bridge I ran through the trails to bridge two and crossed. From there the path goes up on top of the escarpment, and it's a bit of a tough climb in places. Lots of trees are down. There are two places where there are huge sink holes that have eaten part of the path. Do not go running through there at night. I crossed back over bridge three, pretending each of the bridges was an aid station, so I walked for a minute.

From there it was up the hill and back to the house. What with walking the last 5 minutes or so, I was back to the house in 1:20. Running 1:15, no idea at all how far, and I don't really care, is the longest I've run in some time.

This is what running is about in my mind. Getting out in the fresh air, to move and be active, and just plain have fun, is something to be treasured. I don't often get onto the paths I was on, so it was nice to see, and smell, and hear all the stuff. It's good to be careful with my footing, adjusting for roots, and rocks and stuff. Ducking under trees. Scrambling up a steep slope. This was great!