Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Eleven Hundred Forty-Eight


July 28, 2020
7.39 Miles in 1:13:25
Mood: Confused by someone's scrawlings on signs designed to keep people safer.
Soundtrack: The Mountain Goats "Beat The Champ"

Someone with a felt tipped pen feels that they are clever. This despite the fact that they don't know how to spell the word "Breathe". Also, I don't even begin to understand the point they are trying to make, and I'm not sure even they know. There were two signs that had been defaced in this manner as I ran along the Highline Canal Trail. The second sign said, "As elusive as the snipe" and I don't know what that means, either. There was a third sign like this where it looked like this same person (and I'm guessing it's an obnoxious white guy, because of course it is.) wrote something in a similar manner, but someone had gone to the trouble to wipe it out, and you could only see a few of the telltale marks of this guy's handwriting hidden behind an aggressive smudge. I would have liked to have seen what pearls of wisdom he had left, honestly. 



Eleven Hundred Forty-Seven


July 23, 2020
7.71 Miles in 1:17:49
Mood: There is a reason that relaxation CD's include running water.
Soundtrack: Briefly Waxahatchee "Saint Cloud" and then my earbuds died about 10 minutes in.

There is a stretch of path in Highlands Ranch that is extremely natural in the midst of a dense suburb, and it's a nice place to run through. Because I had no music going thanks to forgetting to charge my earbuds, I heard the stream on this particular morning and decided to head over to investigate. I had to push through the bushes you see in this picture to arrive here, but it was a very pretty and serene scene...much nicer than it looks in the photo. And for just about two minutes I stood there enjoying water running down rocks and had a moment of peace. It was nice, and I was thankful for it.



Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Eleven Hundred Forty-Six


July 21, 2020
7.75 Miles in 1:18:56
Mood: Just a few squiggles make a difference.
Soundtrack: Portugal. The Man "Woodstock"

Just a few lines from a marker can sure give some personality to otherwise generic icons. I enjoy this restroom sign more with the additions.



Eleven Hundred Forty-Five


July 19, 2020
7.25 Miles in 1:12:46
Mood: More Flowers!
Soundtrack: Passenger "All The Little Lights" and "Patchwork"

Second post in a row featuring flowers. I had to post this one just because of the crazy variety of blooms in this one pot. It doesn't seem quite as artistic as Southglenn, but since it's in the fancy Denver Country Club neighborhood, it's like they just decided to see how many flowers they could buy and jam into the same spot. It was definitely pretty, even if it had no real flow artistically. Flowers are just pretty.



Eleven Hundred Forty-Four


July 17, 2020
6.34 Miles in 1:04:21
Mood: Flowers!
Soundtrack: Lupe Fiasco "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor"

I gotta hand it to the gardeners at Southglenn, they are back on their game. During the first few months of Covid, there were zero flowers, and it was a more depressing place as a result, as it usually is a flower wonderland. Well, in the past few weeks, they have brought back the floral bling, and you can kind of see it in the photo, but it's even more glorious in person. It's a small thing, but one that I'm glad to see returning.



Thursday, July 16, 2020

Eleven Hundred Forty-Three


July 16, 2020
7.59 Miles in 1:16:35
Mood: Running into "the Ranch" (but not taking photos)
Soundtrack: Nada Surf "Never Not Together"

I made a foray deep into Highlands Ranch today. Something I rarely do. This was a route I have NEVER done before, which is unusual for me, but then, I try to avoid Highlands Ranch for the most part, which does explain it. It was actually a pretty nice run considering how much of it was along major roadways, but I took ZERO pictures of the new places, and only took this photo of the Dry Creek Trail which is less than a mile from my house. Oh well, It's a pretty picture, and Highlands Ranch is far from the most photogenic place on earth.



Eleven Hundred Forty-Two


July 14, 2020
7.49 Miles in 1:17:57
Mood: New street, cool house.
Soundtrack: The Avett Brothers "Closer Than Together"

I run in affluent neighborhoods all the time, but I had never run down this street before, and there was something so picturesque about this house and the walk up to it that I just had to make it my photo for the day. I love everything about this house.



Eleven Hundred Forty-One


July 12, 2020
7.85 Miles in 1:17:13
Mood: I'll get this earbud situation figured out some day.
Soundtrack: Gravel crunching under foot.

I had a new pair of wireless earbuds, but it turns out they work, but not terrifically well while running. Basically if I'm sitting still, they sound mostly perfect, but introduce a little bit of jiggling via running and the connection just falls apart, making music unlistenable. So I ran without music and enjoyed a gorgeous morning at Wash Park, which isn't the worst thing that could happen.



Eleven Hundred Forty


July 9, 2020
8.23 Miles in 1:21:29
Mood: It's a grand old flag.
Soundtrack: Good Old War

I saw a lot of flags in the morning sun, and they looked pretty good. The sun was bright, and thanks to the proximity to Independence Day, flags were EVERYWHERE. I'm not exactly at my patriotic apex at the moment, but Old Glory still looks cool.



Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Eleven Hundred Thirty-Nine


July 7, 2020
6.33 Miles in 1:05:47
Mood: Diabetes is a pain in the butt
Soundtrack: The sounds of a Centennial morning

I didn't charge any of my earbuds, so it was decided for me that it would be a non-music morning. However, about a mile into the run, I was worried that I'd have to scrap the whole run as I was starting to get a low blood sugar. My original plan was to run the Highline Canal trail, but I decided to turn around and head back home for a quick blood sugar boost. I ate a yogurt and drank some lemonade and gave it about 10 minutes to kick in, and then I headed back out. Now I decided to head south and see where I ended up, and although I was worried I'd only get two or three miles total, I managed to salvage a respectable six and a third very slow miles from this debacle, so it wasn't a total waste.


Eleven Hundred Thirty-Eight


July 5, 2020
8.57 Miles in 1:22:32
Mood: Spinning around an old friend.
Soundtrack: Bear's Den "So that you might hear me"

It had been quite awhile since I just ran laps around Wash Park without spinning off into the surrounding neighborhoods, and that sounded like a good idea on this particular Sunday so I just dug in for an old fashioned three lap plus trip around the best park in the world! I had to post another picture of this van, because it's insane that it exists. I see it almost every time I run at Wash Park, and it has never not made me happy.



Eleven Hundred Thirty-Seven


July 3, 2020
7.10 Miles in 1:11:03
Mood: Completely forgettable run
Soundtrack: Waxahatchee "Saint Cloud"

After remembering all sorts of details from my Thursday run, I can remember virtually nothing from this one, other than I thought it was kind of early for sunflowers to be in bloom...feels more like an August thing.



Eleven Hundred Thirty-Six


July 2, 2020
7.79 Miles in 1:17:20
Mood: A memorable fun for many reasons.
Soundtrack: Waterdeep "Heart Attack Time Machine"

I felt like there was a lot to remember about this run. I saw my friend Kelly early on along the Highline Canal trail (although I didn't realize it was her until she had passed me), then I saw three works of art including the one pictured above hanging on a fence, then I saw the Belleview fence gargoyle was decked out in the Canadian flag (which I assume was for July 1st's Canada Day), and then I tripped and fell for the first time in 2020 and got my knee all bloody. So basically, it ran the gamut from fun, friendly and artistic to painful.



Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Eleven Hundred Thirty-Five


June 30, 2020
3.40 Miles in 34:16
Mood: Just out of sorts both mentally and physically, but hey, 100 miles!
Soundtrack: Vampire Weekend "Father of the Bride"

This run was a mess. My family was leaving on a week long trip to Illinois early in the morning, so rather than leave at my normal time and not be able to say goodbye, I decided to run after I finished work. This led to running at 4:00 in the afternoon on a hot (although not Arizona hot) afternoon. I was not doing great, but I was getting in some miles when my blood sugar crashed, and at that point, I knew I was done. Thankfully, I had run JUST enough to hit 100 miles for the month. I barely made it on the last day of June, but I did, and my streak is now at 11 straight months.

I had to walk quite a ways to get back home, but it was a nice early evening, so I didn't mind too much. I had forgotten to change my glasses to the old beat up pair that I usually run in, and even worse, I didn't change my hat into my old beat up running hat, so I got some stuff sweaty that I'd rather not have gotten sweaty.

The final bit of news regarding this run comes from the tree on the Highline Canal that looks like a wizard and for the past few months has started becoming the home for cheap plastic toys. New to the tree this run were the ninja, the rock that says "Courage" and a walrus. Part of me thinks that it's hilarious that so many toys are ending up on this tree and part of me hates it because the tree looks cooler without them, but this is definitely a thing that is happening.