A glimpse.

Friday I took a half day at work.

Why? Because I'm teetering on the edge of severe burnout and thought that bolting at 11:30 on a Friday would fix that. Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Anyway... I spent most of the afternoon hanging out with my mom, but by the end of the afternoon, I had an itch to do something outdoorsy. So I laced up my new trail shoes (that have been staring me down everyday since I bought them in February) and went to Percy Warner Park.

As you know, I kinda have a love/hate relationship trail running. I LOVE the trails in Chattanooga. But, after a particularly god awful day running 9 miles on the red trail at Percy Warner Park a few years ago, I kinda swore off PWP's trails. I still ran out there, but I was a real hater. Friday afternoon, I had low expectations. Particularly since it was the afternoon and we all know how whiny I am about running anytime after 7am. Also, I expected the new trail shoes to give me some guff.

But, for that hour or so, I was in sheer, running HEAVEN. It was glorious! I loved how green and lush everything felt, I loved how the afternoon light trickled through the leaves (in a much different way than the morning sun). My trail shoes felt spectacular. So much so, that I'm kinda wanting to run in them on the road*. Everything was perfect. I stopped and walked up some of the steep hills, but in general, ran a lot more than I thought I would and it felt so damn good.

SO DAMN GOOD!!!!

I didn't even get all that stabby when I met a guy on the trail who tried to chit chat... It was one of the steepest hills on the trail, and I had stopped to walk up it. He was walking down it and when he saw me stop running and start walking, he snarked... "Yeah, this is a tough hill to run up." NO SHIT Sherlock, that's why I'm walking up it. I fake smiled at him. And then, Jim Nantz continued... "You'll get your cardio in going up this one." Thank you for your commentary, jackhole, but I'm not looking for cardio, I'm looking for zen and you just fucking ruined it for me. Bravo. Really, though... some people just say the dumbest things. All you gotta do is say... "Hey, how's it going?" or maybe.. "Beautiful afternoon." How hard is that?

Anyway, I finished with a huge grin on my face and a sense of real gratitude. Two things that I hadn't felt post run in a long time. It's good to know that it comes back. Even if it comes back in little bitty bits and pieces, it does come back. I got a glimpse of it and it was pretty spectacular.


*So... the shoes. They're Brooks Cascadia's and good god do they feel good on my feet. Even better than my luxuriously cushioned ASICS Nimbus. I think it might be time to test out some Brooks shoes.