The SunTrust Marathon is getting closer and it is time for me to start getting more serious about covering miles each week.. it was easy to slack off in the OBX… It’s vacation!  Then afterward there was my birthday weekend and Matt’s birthday weekend… I was busy and the race isn’t until November… well here it is almost the end of July and before I know it those 16 and 17 mile runs will be kicking my you know what if I don’t get my act together…

So… I did 4 Sunday… 6 yesterday and 6 today… usually I don’t do 6 two days in a row but I figured I needed to get used to running for a long period of time and by the end of this training 6 will seem like nothing… anyway I saddled up with my two water bottles connected to this cool running belt thing that has a pocket for my cell phone and my pepper spray and set out on my 6 mile journey… I had just created a “Run” playlist on my new nano I got for my birthday so I was really looking forward to the run…

I started out pretty slow… listening to the song Float On… which has become one of my summer favorites this year… even if it isn’t new… I was glad I had water because it warmed up fast… for the most part the run was the same as it always is… I try to mix up the loops a little bit near my house but there are only a few different combinations and the route today has several hills that had my hamstrings screaming a little bit… but then I would get to the top and have a few minutes to recover…

I am more than 5 and a half miles into the run… I back on my street just heading back out toward the stop sign to make it an even six and leaping across the road in front of me is a small buck… the sight of deer enjoying the world makes me smile… then… a little baby deer speckled with what looked like giant snowflakes is running as fast as it can behind the “Dad” I smiled… then a doe follows… and out of the woods running as fast as his skinny legs would take him comes another baby deer… I felt tears running down my face… the little deer family was standing at the edge of some thick trees… my guess is that they were plotting the best and safest route to my neighbors apple tree (I see them snacking on the fruit sometimes when I come home at night) 

Now… there was no sobbing here… just tears… was it a.) The sweet moment of nature I got the chance to observe… b.) The pain in my legs from all of the hills or c.) just sweat that had accumulated under the brim of my hat… as soon as the “tears” were there they were gone and I was left with a warm feeling so I choose to believe it was “a.”  now at the end of the 15-20 mile runs I have ahead of me there will likely be no question that b.) and c.) will probably both apply.