I love fall! So beautiful!!
I’m just here tonight to bitch and moan about my latest run. Okay, not really, but it was actually one that I completed with the feeling of, “Oh, that sucked, but at least I did it.” It was yesterday, and it was 8 miles. And the weather was once again really awful. I’m beginning to realize that fall in the Pacific Northwest means “windy as hell.”
Fall is actually my favorite time of year, but not when I’m out on the trail running. Have you ever heard a 100 ft tree break and fall? It’s actually quite impressive. There’s a huge craaaaack and then a loud BOOM that follows. I got to experience that yesterday during my run, about 20 feet in front of me. We have these great big, tall, skinny, aspen-like trees that line the better part of the trail, and when the wind blows, they tend to break and fall down. Super scary. So right after my turn-around, from mile 4 to about mile 7, I was looking straight up while trying to run, watching the swaying trees and listening for the next big craaaaack so I could be certain a falling branch wasn’t going to land on me. Well, on the positive side, at least I was running with my head held high, haha.
Scary part of the trail… the setting of most horror movies, dark and ominous!
Another thing I thought I’d try was the Nike Plus running app. Not bad, not bad! I actually used it for all my runs last week (in addition to my watch), and I really like the way it announces what mile you’ve just completed (hey, anything to entertain us while running, right?!). So for the race this Saturday, I’ll have my handy dandy Garmin watch tracking me, my phone, and the Nike Plus running app. It’ll be interesting to compare all the different numbers. I remember how horrified I was when I ran my very first half-marathon and my watch clocked in at 13.4, which actually can happen if you don’t hit all the apices of the turns just right, or so I’m told, and so I discovered.
James ran 22 miles yesterday in that wind. I don’t know why he always chooses windy days for his longest runs! He did well though… he ran through the proverbial wall that tried to overtake him at mile 19 and brought it on home strong. That will be his last “long” run before Chicago (I put “long” in quotations because, personally, I think anything over 6 miles is a long run). Yes, he’s running the Boise half too, but when one is able to run 22 miles, 13 miles is pretty much nothing, me thinks. He’ll be waiting for me at the finish line for about 2 hours… maybe there’ll be a beer tent for him to visit while he waits. 🙂
Jamesy on the trail doing his thing. This is way before you get to the wooded and secluded part… oooooo…
Never A Dull Bling 
You just have a knack for writing entertaining posts about our running that just make me smile 🙂 You are going to rock Boise and PR and have it recorded on all your new gadgetary devices…yes I made up gadgetary, ‘cos I can…oooooo 🙂
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Thank you hunny bunny!! Gadgetary… I like that! We’ll add it to our family verbiage, 🙂
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Ooh that sounds scary!! I would wear a helmet, just in case. Good work on completing it though!! Anything over 3 is long for me soo..you’re both doing fantastically. 😉 and I love the title for your post!!
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Hehe, thank you Lydia! And I remember when you once struggled with a title and how you labeled it, so I learned the honesty from you, 🙂 . ♡
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Awh! 😀 well thank you; I think we should start a trend with this – there’s always a few posts you just can’t come up with something good! 🙂
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Yeah! True that!! 🙂
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😀
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Wow! Scary about the trees falling! We had a whopper come down in our neighborhood a few years back, and it just barely missed a friend. She says the push of air when it hit the ground almost knocked her down. If she was a few seconds slower, it would have killed her. She was very shaky, and another neighbor had to drive her home after that! Be careful!
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That’s super scary about your friend!! Trees falling down is a really serious thing! Take nothing for granted!!!
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I LOVE Fall and all the leaves changing. Not sure I’m a fan of trees falling on me though! I’ll hae to give the Nike App a try when I’m finally able to run again…I do love a good app/gadget. Good luck in Boise.
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Thank you Wendy for the good wishes!! Yeah, it’s fun to try new fitness apps every now and again! Depending on how the numbers compare this weekend, I may try Runkeeper next for the heck of it, 🙂
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Are those Redwood trees? They look enormous!! It must be a lot of work running AND dodging trees at the same time. Geez, be careful out there!!
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Yeah, it’s something else with those trees, haha! Thank you! And no, those aren’t Redwoods. I’m not actually sure what they are. A lot of them are good old fashioned pines… tons of pine cones and needles everywhere, but there’s a great mixture and I’m not the best at identifying plants, 🙂
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