onepinkfuzzy

Kiera wrote me an awesome e-mail today about her run in snowy Sabino. I'm incredibly jealous that she got to run in the snow! I had to drive to Phoenix today for two meetings; not nearly as fun as running snowy Sabino. Sigh.

"So I turned my iPod up loud enough that I could hear neither the sound of my foot falls, nor my ragged breath.
But I set out from the house (from the house!) at 11:01 this morning. I laced up my spankin' white Sauconys and hit the road.

I decided to run the Bluff Trail and take the Dam Trail back, so the reverse of what we did last time. When I remembered to look up, it was beautiful, all picturesque with the snow making everything look pure and wholesome. And I was running, which seemed wholesome, too. A few minutes into the Bluff trail I was like, What the hell was I thinking, signing up for that trail race? I'm totally going to die. But the feeling passed as I found my groove. As I passed certainly spots, I would think of the conversations we've had in those places. 'This is where we talked about how men can't multi-task; this is the spot where --" It's funny how the mind works. But that, and Modest Mouse blaring through my brain, kept me going. Up, up, up.

I got to the top of the Bluff Trail and ran up the road to the picnic spot where the Dam Trail cuts across. I'm not sure exactly what I did differently, but somehow I ended up crossing back over so I was in the wash area right below the Bluff Trail, like along the sandbar or something. So I met back up with the Bluff Trail at the 'V' point (you know, where you make a sharp turn, where they put in those rocks like cobblestones) and followed that back in, willing the burning bush to come into sight. I kept seeing people right when I was ready to walk, but I didn't want to look like a wuss, so I kept up the illusion of happy runner girl. But as I was running along, I came up with what I believe is a new word (I haven't checked any dictionaries, so I could be wrong, but let's just say, for the sake of argument, that it's new): Contextualize. Definition: To rationalize an action by citing situational reasons.

I think that was my peak brain activity for the day. But, the upshot: great run, just over an hour, door-to-door. I was out there and that makes it good. Here are some pics from up there."