Gumption Lost. Gumption Found.

Today was a planned 30-mile day: a long morning run and a shorter, faster evening run. Yet when I woke up this morning, I really just didn't much feel like running at all. I finally got myself out the door around 9:30 with a general plan to run towards the Boulder Reservoir via a circuitous route (so - from my house in south Boulder to the rez northeast of Boulder...something more than 7 miles which is the distance of a more direct route) - then I'd go somewhere and eventually get back home with 4 hours of running under my belt.

As I started running, my predominant thought was that it would've felt mighty fine to stay in bed all day. And as I continued running, I had an ongoing debate in my head about whether/where to turn back. But on I went. And ya' know, about two hours into the run, about the time I reached the rez, I started feeling pretty good. Notables of the run:

• About two miles into the run, I hear "Hello Paula!" - and there was running buddy AndyE riding his bike to class. He asked where I was running this morning and I told him out towards the rez and hoping for about 20 miles. Excellent incentive for not turning around at that point!
  
• Wildlife including (in addition to my 62 year old running buddy cyclist) a huge dead rat, a squashed snake, a not-shy muskrat, loads of geese and ducks, and an eagle.
• Running on the Eagle Trail - a trail I ran often with the satboys gang when the gang was bigger. We had many a boisterous Saturday run out in this neck of the woods/prairie. Today I headed straight west on the Eagle Trail - something I'd never done before - and found my way to a trail that took me around the northwest corner of Boulder.
  
• From the northwest corner of Boulder I followed a trail to Boulder's Wonderland Lake neighborhood where I logged hundreds of miles with running buddy Patti in the pre-Satboys days - back when our sons were young and Patti and I would treat ourselves to a Saturday morning run together...girl time away from our male households.
  
• From the northwesterly part of town, I headed down into the valley floor where I decided to explore a street I'd never been on (or even seen) before - and lo and behold, I came upon the apartment complex that Kendall and I had been living in at the time we got married (32 years ago)...there was the very balcony we stood on while shooting champagne corks into what was then an empty field next door.
• From the valley floor, I continued south (and uphill) to campus - and while I was running through the campus, I saw an old family friend. We walked together a bit while we got caught up on each other's doings. She's an M.D. and is compiling a list of medical kit supplies I should have with me on The Run. Very handy!
  
• From campus to home, a mere two miles, covered in a very good mood.
  

Final tally: exactly 5.5 hours, to be logged as 25 miles. What a morning! and afternoon!