june 28/RUN

5 miles
bottom franklin hill and back
68 degrees
humidity: 87%

It felt warm and humid today. Difficult. I managed to stick to 9/1 for the first 30 minutes, then I was less consistent as my heart rate stayed elevated. Still, I had some small victories: 1. I ran up most of the franklin hill — more than I thought I would/could; 2. I made it through 3 9/1 circuits when I thought I could only do 2; 3. I ran up a hill and kept running until the end of edmund instead of giving up early.

10 Things

1. a runner’s bright orange shorts
2. another runner’s sturdy and strong form running up the hill
3. the water in the flats: rough, textured, corrugated
4. 3 roller skiers climbing a hill — the first faster, ahead of the 2 others who were good-naturedly complaining about how fast he was
5. 5 or 6 runners — part of a team — shirtless and fast
6. strange construction noises coming from above me on the I-94 bridge
7. Mr. Morning!
8. no sign of the tree that fell in the tunnel of trees on Thursday evening
9. evidence of last night’s rain: a few puddles, wet branches
10. a very short stretch of deep, muddy tire tracks through the grass between the road and the path

5

Humid today; I was sticky. My heart at first felt small, tight.
If I could, I would not have waited until it was light. I would have left when it was still early, ahead of the sun.
Last night, rain. Now a track of muddy grass. Climbing up, above the gorge, my heart grows, opens, makes a joyful noise.

a thought: not sure how this 5 experiment is working so far. Not that inspiring yet. I’ll give it a few more days.

later, in the evening: I’ve been watching Western States 100 off and on all day. I wanted to make note of an expression they’ve been using. Referring to course records and past splits for runners, the commentators described current competitors as chasing the ghost of the record holder. The lead male runner is trying to beat Jim Walmsley’s course record from 2019, so they keep saying, he’s chasing Jim’s ghost. I find this fascinating.