Running long in Georgia

Friday pm, 15.2 miles, 2:00:45

This post contains discussion of bodily fluids and is therefor rated for Runners Only.
Fair warning.

If you're only going for one run in a week, it may as well be a long one. My cold from last week is now 12 days old and shows no signs of giving me relief, but has instead spread to take over my head. Combined with travel and the fact that Silas considers time zones to be a bourgious concept that will not survive the revolution, Monday through Thursday have been goose eggs. Anxious to shed myself of sloth, I headed out the door late this afternoon, telling Christine and my mom that I'd be back in 20-90 minutes, depending on how crappy I felt. I brought the ipod with me, and wisely started out with Radiohead's In Rainbows, one of my best running albums of late. 15 Steps always gets me off to an aggressive start, and Jigsaw always seems to come up when I'm at the midpoint of a big hill.

So, with my teeth threatening to fall out and my head ready to explode, I worked my way out of mom's subdivision with not much plan in mind but to run through Sandy Springs. Feeling good after about 25 minutes, I decided to run all the way out to my old high school, North Springs, and run a Trowbridge loop, the abominable circuit that made up our cross country course. I realized on this run why North Springs will never be a powerhouse in cross country. East Sandy Springs is the land of disappearing sidewalks; that, combined with the oppressive heat of a Georgia summer, keeps anyone from training during the offseason. At least it did me.

I made it out to the high school and turned back as dusk was settling in. I decided to take a slightly longer route back along Spalding Dr, partly because it looked like there was sidewalk to run on. This was an illusion, of course, and I was back to running through people's yards after about half a mile. This section of Spalding near the Chattahoochie River is the high-rent district of Sandy Springs (which is pretty high-rent on the whole, anyway). I played baseball with a kid who lived around here; his dad had been one of the initial investors in a local hardware chain. Even with this in mind, I literally laughed out loud at one of the newer homes that I passed: it was modeled in the style of a Roman temple, complete with dome, and had a life-sized statue of two lions in the front, in marble, with spotlights. Awesome.

After a while, I wasn't laughing anymore. The run was long, my hands were cold, and I was leaving a snail-like trail of mucous from my nose and throat. And it was dark, and I was going to sprain my ankle running through people's gardens who weren't decent enough to put in a stupid sidewalk.

Making it through this area, I started to feel better as I got back onto familiar ground and had a little more space to run. I made it back to the subdivision, and tacked a little bit on down the hill and back, since I'd be damned if I stopped my watch at 1:59:59. Made it home and enjoyed a lovely evening with post-run bronchitis.

Runs will be sporadic for the next few weeks until I get home after New Years, and posting will be more so.