the turtle trail

Miles today: 5.2

On the iPod: "Dare You To Move" -- Switchfoot

Day one is in the books. Woke up late to rain and considered blowing the entire thing off, but thought better of it after some coffee. Ran the streets of my neighborhood mainly out of convenience and not wanting to drive to the trails.

The first 100 yards or so were totally awkward. I hadn't run, purposely, for five weeks, so my legs were tight and my stride was choppy but I found a rhythm and started smiling. It felt great to be doing what I like to do again. I had somewhat of a route in my head but wasn't sure of the total distance it would be. I never time myself and am totally cool with not paying attention to distances. It makes the event of running more about enjoyment rather than a goal. I've got plenty of goal ahead of me without worrying about a set distance on a Monday morning.

Almost to the out-and-back turn-around, I came across a turtle in the road. Stopped to take a look and considered moving it, but thought better of it when I saw he (turtles are he's, right?) had spikes on his shell. So I left him be. On the way back he was gone. Out of sight. I want to think he found his way into the fields on either side of the road, but there was also a really big gutter about 5 feet away. I'm voting for the wide open fields.

But the turtle got me thinking about the bigger picture of running and how turtles take things at their own pace and seem to do just fine in life. They don't get in a hurry. I want to be a turtle.