A Nature Run

At the camp where I used to work, the kids would often go on "Nature Walks," which was basically just walking around and spotting animals and identifying them.  Today, I had a bit of a Nature Run, although all I could really do is spot animals.

I left the house while it was still dark.  I don't know if anyone noticed, but last weekend's full moon was actually the brightest we'll see in 2009.  Even the now less-than-full moon is amazingly bright.  After about 30 minutes, civil twilight was upon me and I was starting my trek into the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains.  Once I get west of the highway, there are very few cars and today, I was out earlier than the cyclists.  It was quiet, just getting light, and peaceful.  And then, they trotted out from behind some bushes.  Just two beautiful coyotes (I think...wolves aren't that prevalent in California and they were not "foxy").  They were about 20 feet away, and as I trotted up the hill in the bike lane and they trotted down the hill on a path in the shoulder, we just looked at each other.  I'm not sure they were looking at me for my beauty, but that's why I couldn't stop looking at them.  They were just stunning, young-looking, and not mangy at all.  I have no idea where they were going...to their left was road and a fenced off horse farm, to their right was SLAC, the heavily guarded 2 mile long linear accelerator, and straight ahead was highway 280.  Regardless, they looked like they were on a fun mission.

A short while ago, AS posted on her blog that she came upon a coyote or two while hiking in Arizona and that she's still somewhat scarred by the experience of running away from them hoping they weren't right behind her.  Before today, the closest I've been to coyotes is when they were in the lane next to me cruising through Yosemite one morning and outside the window in Tahoe, howling like they were making trouble.  This is the closest I've seen coyotes face to face and I actually wasn't scared.  They were so calm and never looked like they really cared about me.  But, as I kept running up the hill, I kept looking over my shoulder to see if they ran out of real estate and started to follow me.

In other news, the running is going well.  Remarkably, running 16 miles has been no sweat, a lot of fun, and I continue to feel like I could keep running if the finish line was further up the road.  My calves are tight after these long, hilly runs, so I need to be disciplined about hydration, ice baths, and the foam roller to keep them happy.  If I can stay healthy, I think I might really enjoy this marathon.  One thing I've struggled with in the past six months is that I have loved training and it has gone very well, but then my goal races have been below my expectations.  One thing I'm going to try is to taper for a lot longer than most running programs prescribe.  I have run two of my best races with only easy running in the last two weeks.  The other thing that I'd like to do is to go into the marathon with only an expectation of finishing with a smile on my face.  I won't be able to get rid of the watch completely, but I think that has to be my "A" goal, instead of my "C" goal.  I'm also thinking about doing Team In Training for an event in the fall.  I've been searching for some cause, like the Obama campaign, that I feel passionate about.  I haven't really found that, but running is certainly something that I can do to help other people.  And, I have struggled to meet new people out here, so maybe something like this would help.  I'm still in investigation phase with TNT and would love any input from past participants.  Maybe from there, I will learn more about fundraising and events and I could try to fundraise for environmental causes, or something that is near and dear to me.  Maybe even to make sure those coyotes can continue to traipse along Sand Hill.