breezy

My first day back in Fairbanks, I figured out that my body was not accustomed enough to hills, and that my newly-running-again legs would not tolerate the inclines without pain. I have been running again for over six weeks now, and was nearing the end of the couch-to-5K program I’d committed to. But with the hills, there was no three mile run happening that day. I walked the mileage instead, running only on the flat bits, and for the next two days went hiking instead.

Last night, in Seward, laying beside the bay an hour before the sun set behind the high peaks, I was suddenly taken with a desire to run; something utterly unaccustomed in these last days and weeks of forcing myself out of the house every morning to pound out the beginnings of mileage along the sidewalks of Saint Paul. I scrambled back to the truck, not wanting to lose the impulse, and dug out my running clothes. Changing in the dank, public-park bathroom, I cringed as my other clothes hit the floor, but then remembered they were already filthy. Emerging into cool dusky sunlight, I left my earphones in the truck, hid the keys behind the gas cap and hoped the truck would still be there when I got back.

I am a slow, shuffling runner on the best of days and running alongside the ocean did nothing for my usual gait. But the cool breeze off the water in the shade of the mountains was refreshing and I found that I wasn’t sweating nearly as much as I do on my dawn runs through the city. I passed wheeling seagulls by the fish packing plant, then there were eagles overhead and salmon jumping out of the bay just feet away from where I plodded my way along the winding road to Lowell Point. The flat oceanside road was perfect without a hint of elevation gain or loss, and for the first time in weeks I found I was running without the screaming pain in my legs that I’ve accepted as payment for trying to run through the mystery injury that’s kept me sidelined for several years.

It wasn’t a perfect run, but I clocked in longer than I’ve run in years and felt fantastic at the end of it. A true runner’s high, finally. Payoff. The only problem is that showers are hard to come by in this town, and I forgot to grab a towel before I left Toni’s in Fairbanks. At least nobody is sharing the back of my truck with me at night. Hopefully that lovely, fresh ocean breeze will keep the worst of it at bay.