Pause

Today's solitary run was along the South Boulder Creek trail which was extraordinarily quiet this morning. So much so, that I found myself pausing to revel in the quiet.

One stretch of the trail goes between marshy grasses and some ponds - a stretch where I am always looking for wildlife as we have seen water birds, deer, coyotes, rabbits, prairie dogs, and even a weasel in the past. Today was a bird day - the air was filled with bird chatter.

A pause to listen.

Further along the trail is grassland - now standing grass from last year's growth, no green yet to be seen. But with the sun shining on it, it glowed golden brown.
A pause to gaze.
























Off the trail and back into the neighborhoods - very very quiet neighborhoods. But not without their sense of humor.
A pause to laugh.

Paul's Day

I am certain that my running - daily, races, quests - would not have been as fun or even possible without the fellowship and support of family and friends. Today marks the birthday of one of those family members who has brought boundless joy and incomparable support to many of my runs and, in particular, running adventures. Happy birthday Paul VaughanMiller!

Through the younger ages:

3-year-old Paul running the kids' Kick-Off Classic

High school Paul and mom after Boulder Canyon run

On the big quest - the run from Boulder, Colorado to Petoskey, Michigan:

The starting line! (Our driveway in Boulder)

Nebraska Sandhills

Cannon Valley Trail in Minnesota

The moment we first saw the Michigan State Line

Or when I ran 60k for my 60th birthday:

Bicycle chaperones at the start of the run (bro-in-law Andy and son Paul)

Or celebrating the final state in my quest to run a trail in every state!

Pre-run frivolity

Starting off on the Fraser River Trail

Or just this past year, when we laughed/walked/ran our way through the Bolder Bolder

At the start

Paul found cupcakes along the course!

It was a very good day when you came into our lives, Mister Paul!

Sunrise Run

A seemingly lifetime ago (well, February-ish) running buddies and I thought we'd be celebrating my birthday by running a virtual Hot Chocolate 15k. First, Mother Nature intervened with 8 inches or so of very wet heavy spring snow on my birthday day making the thought of 15 snow-clogged trail kilometers rather unappealing. Then COVID-19 intervened outlawing group runs. Ah well. As an old friend used to say when things were looking grim: "The sun still comes up in the east" - and I decided to take full advantage of that today with a sunrise run on the trail we had planned for the birthday 15k. It was glorious - a beautiful sunrise, peaceful run, brilliantly clear sky - so clear the Continental Divide sparkled and Pikes Peak, 100+ miles away, was even visible!

Ready to run! Taz ran 2 of the 3.1-mile loops with me.

Sunrise during loop 1

Sun is up for loop 2

No 2-legged running buddies today but my 4-legged running buddy was good company!

Taz spots Kendall. Sprint time!

Turns out Connie also came out to run!  And get a donut treat (waiting for her on the bench - thanks Kendall!)

Ups and Downs

My mood today is, well, shall we say, not reflective of my usual upbeat self. The persistent quiet, absence of friendly gatherings, taxes and work bearing down on me, concerns about my brother's isolation, worries about my sister-in-law's health all conspired to consume my mental state this morning.

I have always found solace in running so run I did - a rather uninspired run, I must confess. Taz and I wandered through nearby neighborhoods, at one point trotting along a street that running buddies and I often use for speed work when training for the Bolder Boulder. Sigh.

Bolder Boulder training gang 2016

 We then set off toward Paul's house where I knew Paul was on a Zoom call for the Boulder County Democrats' Assembly. A bit of a smile emerged as we entered Paul's neighborhood and I told Taz to "find Paul's house" at which point he immediately perked up his ears and upped the pace pulling me the rest of the way straight to his boy's home.  We hopped up onto the porch and stood in front of Paul's front window waving and blowing kisses then went on our way again.

The blues soon returned so I headed for St Andrews' memorial garden for a quiet few moments. Finding some litter there did not improve my mood but it did give me something productive to do.






After our contemplative respite, Taz and I continued along a creekside trail which offered more moments of peacefulness and brought us to the Chancellor's property (also known as Taz's yaya loop since that's where Taz can run off-leash and get his yaya's out). I kept Taz on leash, though, to have better control over social-distancing in case we crossed paths with other walkers or runners. No walkers or runners appeared but we spotted a fox! My patronus!

The dark bump in the middle of the photo is a very watchful fox. A quick snapshot and we walked briskly on.

Peaceful moments can vanquish the doldrums!

Briarwood antics

Looking for something new and entertaining for today's run, Taz and I decided to make a surprise visit to our Briarwood running buddies. I must say, having two running buddies living just a few houses apart makes safe-distancing a breeze!  Upon arriving within shouting distance of both of their homes, I sent a text saying "Look out front!". Two doors opened and big smiles lit up the block. I do believe Taz's smile may have been the biggest - apparently he is getting a bit bored with the same-old-same-old people. When I told him he could go say Hi first to Connie then to Anita, tail-wagging and even more smiles abounded. These let's-break-the-boredom runs are pretty darned fun!

The running crowd - of one

I look at the calendar next to my desk and see this:

56k into my 60k 60th birthday run

And that makes me think of this:

Starting out on the final trail in my quest to run a trail in every state (Fraser River Trail, Colorado)

So many grand running adventures - all made possible and even more grand with friends and family supporting me all along the way.


With COVID-19 upon us, rules of social distancing and keeping group sizes at less than 10 individuals caused us to make some adjustments in our runs. Small groups and running venues that would allow us to spread out became the rule of the day.  And that led to this photo from yesterday's run:

A stellar example of social distancing when we found Waldo at the top of Boomerang Hill!

Then yesterday afternoon Governor Polis issued a Stay In Place executive order. The order does allow outdoor activity - but disallows activity with anyone but one's self and members of one's household. Thus we are looking at a future of solo runs here for a bit.

Feeling a bit at loose ends with this turn of events, today's run was a meandering affair which Taz seemed to thoroughly approve of. First we dropped some documents off at Paul's house (Paul on one side of the door, me on the other, washed hands touching the documents) then I thought I'd cruise on by running buddy AndyE's house to wave hello from the street. As usual, he was out and about the house being busy, this time armed with a broom.

Next we set off toward a street which I thought might lead to a trail I had discovered a while back. We found that trail - and that trail led to another trail that I had not known about. Finding a new trail is always a highlight in my running life - and Taz and his nose were quite delighted with this new sniffing territory.

Yes! This trail does lead somewhere!

Plenty plenty to sniff here!

From that trail we headed over to East Campus, attempted to follow a barely visible trail in order to get off the sidewalk, and stumbled across a pair of vultures enjoying breakfast. They did not appreciate the intrusion and flew off - and I was appalled that we were causing so much disruption. We trotted lickety-split right back to the sidewalk. Shame on me!

From East Campus I realized our timing might be coinciding with Kendall's grocery delivery to my brother, David. A quick phone call confirmed this so Taz and I bounded over to Dave's Senior Apartment Complex where we put on a little dance in the middle of the street below his window for his morning's entertainment.  After that, 'twas a calm run homeward bound where we found these bright blossoms awaiting our arrival.

A solo run - but entertaining nonetheless!

Sunshine Therapy

After our first-day-of-spring snowstorm, Colorado returned to its sunshiny self - brightening moods as well as the sky. Taz and I celebrated by running to CU South. The run there wasn't bad, but the run within the CU South property was much better suited to four-legged critters than two-legged critters.

Happy dog! Looking at his happy person!

 Today's run was on calm, scenic country roads. What could be more soothing than watching cows eat their breakfast with a view of snow-covered Flatirons in the background...

A most unusual birthday

These are interesting times. (Rather an understatement wouldn't you say?)

Looking back on past birthdays, a few stand out. There was the "come as you are" party my mom arranged for me when I was in high school and friends were called upon at the last minute "to come as you are" arriving in everything from pajamas to dresses. In the mid 70s I had a cast-signing party on my birthday a couple days after breaking my arm while cross-country skiing.  My 1988 birthday was quite notable as I was two days shy of my due date with my second child.  Many birthdays; many memories...

Our original plan for this year's birthday day was to run the Virtual Hot Chocolate 15k with some of my running buddies. Those plans started shifting with the onset of the COVID-19 virus. The plans shifted firmly into the ash can with the prediction of a heavy wet spring snowstorm. And snow it did! Rain started Wednesday night, became snow mid-morning Thursday, and tapering off late Thursday night leaving us today with a several-inch-thick coating of heavy wet snow.

Rather than running a 15k, I had a leisurely start to the day with coffee, fresh-baked cinnamon coffeecake (thank you Kendall!), and a newspaper in bed. Then it was time to layer up and go out for a couple hours of snow shoveling (our walk which seems to get longer each year plus the walks of a couple of elderly neighbors) - after which I decided to venture out onto the roads and bike paths for a run. It turns out the shoveling was way more fun than the running.  This batch of untouched snow is too heavy to run in, if packed it turns into ice chunks, and if shoveled or plowed it leaves behind a thin layer of ice.  However, two good things came to light with this day's goings-on:

1. This is *not* my 60th birthday when I planned (and ran) a 60k loop-de-loop around Boulder to celebrate my 60 years - a celebration with many running buddies and a post-run party.
2. I have a warm cozy home and family to return to after my snowy icy run.

Taz and Barley and the first day of Spring snow

Taz the happy snow-runnin' dog

Home and happy with a first day of Spring snow run

Done shoveling today. Time to run!

Another bonus with today's run: This happy fella smiling at me along the way.

Good practices

One might think of "practice" in this pjsrun blog as falling within in the context of running practice. And we did do a bit of that today with hill repeats on Boomerang.
Or, one might think of "practice" - particularly good practices - in today's times as falling within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, yes, we most certainly followed good health practices during our run today. We kept a good distance from eachother, we did not touch the gate at our turnaround point at the top of the hill, and we did not touch the cars upon our finishing up our run. But we sure did enjoy the sunshine and sweat as we cruised up and down, up and down, many times up and down the hill.

Social distancing on the trail

Post run distance chatting and dancing Belle

 

Easy going running

This morning Connie and I treated ourselves to a meandering run through the Chautauqua and Hill neighborhoods of Boulder, admiring the older homes and spring gardens along the way. A perfect way to ease into the day!

Snowdrops in an early spring garden

Connie was pretty sure this was a real bear.

Chautauqua Auditorium looms through the mist

This week was supposed to mark the start of our Bolder Boulder training - but, alas, the BB has been postponed until later in the year. We consulted with each other and concluded that we should go ahead and jump into the training schedule but, perhaps, not quite with both feet. For example, tomorrow was scheduled to be a 5k time trial to use as a baseline for subsequent training. We couldn't quite see the point of that and neither of us were in the mood for such a run, so, instead, we will begin our hill work tomorrow which, according to the schedule, would have begun next week. Although I'm not an avid racer, I sure do love to train. I'm quite looking forward to this!

Peaceful Moments, Delightful Diversions, Encouraging Signs

Times of late have been, shall we say, ...unnerving?  "Social distancing," school closures, event cancellations, extreme wariness of the health of those nearby. Fortunately, the medical establishment is encouraging folks to get outdoors (at 6-foot-distances from the nearest human). I am more than willing to oblige. And when I do oblige I am rewarded: fresh breezes on my face, bird song in the air, rustling grasses, a bit of sweat, muscles moving.  I don't know how running does it, but it is both calming and invigorating. Ahhhhh.

The delights of recent runs:

Lawn Art!

More Lawn Art - Same House!

Newly discovered Little Free Library

First daffodils of the season!

In addition to the encouraging signs of spring (the new daffys) I am beginning to experience encouraging signs in running after a year of many disruptions and puny workouts. Much to my delight, yesterday's fairly flat-surface run was done at a cadence of 91 left-foot-falls per minute - a goal I try to maintain while race training. My hill workouts with Connie have been strong ...and almost as fast as Connie!  And, bonus, my weight is starting to creep downward *and* I can once again pull on my favorite pair of jeans without unbuttoning them!  Progress!