Forest Meadows

I like to wake up around 7:00 am on the week ends, it's my comfort zone. I watch sportscenter, drink my coffee, have breakfast, walk around the apartment, and lazily pull on my gear. All at my leisure of course. But I am afraid that time has come and gone, because it's 90 degrees with 95% humidity at 8:00, this is summer. When the weather changes from the overcast and chilly winter, to the gloriously fragrant spring, runners can be seen at all hours of the day. You see them in morning, jogging along, plugged into an ipod. You see new outfits, matching shorts to fresh sneakers, women without sweat gliding through parks. You see men pulling their dogs, excited to be alive and testing the athleticism of their canine friend. But as May melts into June, those runners recede back into their air conditioning. The trails clear and the sidewalks go empty. Afternoons are reserved for napping and pool lounging and ice tea replaces gatorade and gu. But I can't stop. Because this is how I deal with my problems and those don't recede as the temperature rises. Running is my secret weapon in engineering school. It's how I calm down, it's how I learn to take things slow and focus. So this Sunday, I was out there, running the trail with a full sized beach towel and a gallon of water waiting for me at the end. It felt like I was literally running through hell. If hell had 95% humidity, which I'm sure it does. There were others, a pack of four men keeping a quick pace ran past me as I made my way around the lake. There was a couple of lone wolves jogging up the hills, getting their shoes dirty with dry red clay. But gone were the girls with their perfums, gone were their coordinating outfits and fresh out of the box asics. Only sweat and mud. Only bugs and humidity.