Running

I love to go running. I love being outside, feeling the sun and a slight breeze on my face. I love looking at the blue sky, the trees and wild flowers which are so beautiful this year. I love the feeling of everything working in sync together, my arms, legs and lungs. I love the challenge of getting out there and just "doing it". After wards, I am hot, sweaty and very happy.

One of my favorite runs right now is "going to the top of the world". It is a four mile route. From my house, I go around Tucker lake to the right, pick up the cement trail and go all the way up to the water tower then back down and finish my loop around the lake. I always run up the little hill to get out of the Tucker lake area. It is just over a mile of uphill once I get to the cement trail to go to the water tower. I love being up there, I can see Arvada Reservoir and North Table mountain to the South, the whole plains including the Denver skyline to the East, to the northwest I can even see the Boulder Flatirons. It is fabulous up there. I also really like this run because I have to work hard to get up to the water tower but then it is a gradual decline back down to Tucker Lake. I feel like I can run fast. Working on training those fast twitch muscles for this part.

On Saturday, while running around Tucker lake, I saw seven pelicans soaring together in a northerly direction. It was a beautiful sight.

Today's run, I managed to time it just as hundreds of hatchlings were hoovering at face level. I felt like Pig Pen from the Charlie Brown cartoons with a billowy cloud of dust surrounding me only it wasn't dirt but little bugs. I ran with my hand waving in front of face, trying not to inhale them or get them in my eyes. I was surprised how long the swarms lasted. On the way back though, I didn't encounter any. I also saw a buck on the hill side. It went bounding away in the tall grass so you could just see his antlers going up and down.