was worth it, though

I am like any other runner: sometimes there are days when I just don’t “feel” like running. I know I should go running; there is no valid excuse not to go. But it is almost like there is some little troll up in my brain that sometimes tries to convince me it’d be better to be lazy. Every once in awhile, the trolls wins out. Well, I am glad the troll didn’t win today.

It was a hot and steamy run. Well, maybe not “steamy” — the humidity is still pretty low. Still, it was hot. Like summer hot. Like 73 degrees at 7:00 in the morning hot.

I made two good choices today. First, I decided to run a route I call the Lagoon - Riding Ring Run. You’ll see why I call it that momentarily. The second good choice was to take my trusty digital camera. As a result, you’re going to get to enjoy a copiously illustrated “virtual” run with me. A run with LOTS of critters.

The route starts at the Lagoon. The picture to the left is what the route looks like. Its a dirt trail. I read once that running on dirt is like giving your legs candy. I love dirt trails. They do make your legs feel really good. I have been running mainly on asphalt as of late, so the soft dirt felt extra good.

The Lagoon was absolutely filled with wildlife — which is why I am glad I brought my camera along. Oh yeah. I even photographed a member of homo sapien named Jenny.

Yes, you can see in my oh so cool Adidas mirror sunglasses that it was a self portrait. And yes, I still have hair. Its just sparse and ugly hair.

And yes, I know its dangerous, but I like to listen to Snorky while I run. For those of you who don’t visit very often or who forgot, Snorky is the name of my rusty (Snorky is truly rusty), trusty hot pink ipod. I turn Snorky down way low when I run trails, sometimes I turn her off completely, but I am so used to having my ipod on my arm, I feel naked without it.

ANYWAY.

Almost immediately, I started spotting wildlife. It began by the falls. Here’s a picture of the falls and here’s a picture of the first critter I saw: a chipmunk.

Hey! Don’t go yet. The animal pictures are going to get better, I assure you.

But first you’re going to have to suffer through some wildflower photography. I spotted some really beautiful flowers on this run and couldn’t help but to stop and try to photograph them.

This run takes me on a circular path around the Lagoon. It was on this loop that I started seeing wildlife galore.

Perhaps I saw so many birds because, as the sign says, this IS an important bird area. But I used to run here a lot and to be entirely honest on those runs I usually saw nothing. Today was a banner day for bird watching, spotting, and even photographing.

First, I flushed out a mother wood duck with her brood. I felt bad that I startled them. The mother duck was quite flustered and kept making anxious noises — I think because she was worried about keeping such a large brood of babies together. When I stopped to take a picture of the mother wood duck, I also peered into the water. I caught a couple fish in the water. You’ll have to look really close, probably, to see them but the second picture shows a few small lagoon fish (they are nothing compared to the size of the big steelhead trout you see running in the Rocky River)

If you’re done looking at the fish, I have even more baby pictures for you. How about a pair of proud Canada geese with their two cute fuzzy yellow goslings?

And then I saw a Great Blue Heron. Now he / she didn’t appear to have any babies, but the Great Blue is a big stately bird, always worth expending at least a few photographs on.

After circling the lagoon, the trail I run takes a hard turn and goes up one heck of a steep and dangerous hill. You can check out this gnarly hill.

The reward for making it up this gut busting, leg trashing, lung lashing climb is a pine tree forest and a path carpeted with ever so soft pine needles.

Its shady and its cool up here. But you still have to be careful because this isn’t designed as a “oh my God lawyers will sue me if I don’t put up rails” trail.

Now I told you before that I’d explain why I call this the Lagoon - Riding Ring run.

Well, as you come out of the woods, there is a large field and a riding ring for horses. This is, by the way, a bridle trail. That means you get to enjoy a well maintained trail, but it does get used fairly frequently by horses. So you have to watch your step.

(I even saw two horses today. They were actually coming up that steep hill I have nicknamed “The Gut Buster.”)

Here’s a couple more images: note the big grassy field that the trail circles around (and in the sky you can note the thunderheads that are building and promising that it may storm later) and note the proverbial fork in the road (I took the road less traveled by)

As I rentered the woods and began to circle back (this is a loop route), I saw a couple deer. One was a buck who’s antlers were just starting to bud. The other was a very large doe.

 

I finished up the run and ended up driving down to Mastick Woods to play in the sprinkler I photographed for yesterday’s entry.  I hope you enjoyed coming along on my virtual run and all the pictures — especially those of the critters.

Tags: ABVD, chemotherapy, hematology, Hodgkin's Disease, oncology, photography, Running, trails