Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Eleven Hundred Ninety

 


October 28, 2020
7.05 Miles in 1:13:16
Mood: Here there be dragons
Soundtrack: The Decemberists "What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World" and "Hazards of Love" and "Be Your Girl"

After running in snow on Sunday, I avoided hitting the road for a few days and found myself needing to get back on my grind. It was warmer than it had been the past couple of mornings, but still below freezing. The trails are still covered in snow, so I found myself running on the streets of Littleton...something I do much more often in the winter than the summer because the trails are never snowpacked in June. The good thing about running on streets I don't usually run on is that occasionally you find a house that has a gaggle of inflatable dragons in their yard. Not sure what dragons have to do with Halloween, but I also don't care because really I'd be perfectly happy if there were dragons in people's front yards year round, and really dragons are better than ghosts and ghouls. 

Eleven Hundred Eighty-Nine


October 25, 2020
5.83 Miles in 59:14
Mood: Snow and Cold? Okay, I guess.
Soundtrack: Blind Pilot "We Are The Tide"

This was the first legitimately super cold run of the season. I'm still in fall mode of nice days and occasional chilly mornings where I don't need to bundle up to run and can occasionally even break out a pair of shorts, but it was 16 degrees outside when I started, and I started late because I had to convince myself that I needed to run and it took me a bit of time to do that. Turns out that cold and snow is a big demotivator for me. I decided that I would run a shorter amount than usual, but I'd still run. It actually turned out to be a pretty nice morning, and although it was cold, it wasn't miserable and I actually felt pretty good looping around a very white Wash Park.




Eleven Hundred Eighty-Eight

 


October 23, 2020
7.39 Miles in 1:17:14
Mood: Approving of a house.
Soundtrack: Too Beautiful To Live

This house is happy and buck-toothed, and that's pretty great. More houses should incorporate googly eyes. 





Thursday, October 22, 2020

Eleven Hundred Eighty-Seven

 


October 21, 2020
7.18 Miles in 1:11:50
Mood: Tired of politics
Soundtrack: The Bill Simmons Podcast

I saw a lot of political signs on this run. We are less than two weeks away from the election, and the world is kind of in a crazy place right now. I'm hoping things start to settle down and return to a more normal pace very soon, but for now it's all enflamed political passion and lots of mailers telling me how I should vote. I voted a few days ago, and yet the mail still comes. In a state where everyone votes by mail, getting political mailers this close to election day feels like a waste...it's too late guys!

I did, however, quite enjoy this political sign. I'm not sure Cthulhu is the best candidate out there, but then, he's probably not the worst either.





Eleven Hundred Eighty-Six

 


October 19, 2020
6.23 Miles in 1:03:19
Mood: Dragging a little
Soundtrack: The Bill Simmons Podcast and Too Beautiful To Live

The family made it back from a short mountain vacation the day before, and I was still off work for several more days, so I slept in and took my time before setting out on this run. I was still kinda tired, and the lack of needing to be anywhere made me feel unmotivated for some reason. I didn't feel anywhere close to my best, and ended up walking a good amount on this one, so I ended up with only six miles and didn't feel great about it. It wasn't a terrible run, but I didn't feel anywhere close to my best. At least Autumn looked nice on the trail, so that was something.






Eleven Hundred Eighty-Five

 


October 16, 2020
7.28 Miles in 1:16:11
Mood: So many skeletons!
Soundtrack: Bon Iver "For Emma, Forever Ago"

I awoke very early at my aunt's house in Grand Junction and decided to head out for a run. Grand Junction isn't my favorite place to run because the neighborhoods have no flow and you can be running in a beautiful area and two seconds later be running in an area that feels very sketchy and then a minute later you're in an industrial area. This lack of consistency makes it weird to run in, but it does have some nice areas including Mesa State University which was a fun place to run through. However, the best photo of the day happened almost immediately after I left my aunt's house. They have a house on their street that is decked out for Halloween with over 30 skeletons. They are EVERYWHERE in their front yard, but I thought this was the coolest picture, the skeleton on the light pole. This house is very fun, and I doubted anything would beat it for the photo of the run, and I was right.





Eleven Hundred Eighty-Four

 


October 14, 2020
7.27 Miles in 1:12:35
Mood: Blown away by the sun coming up
Soundtrack: I can't remember

It was the last day of work for me before a week's vacation, and I headed outside and immediately was blown away by just how good the sunrise was. Seriously, this was a really good sunrise!




Monday, October 12, 2020

Eleven Hundred Eighty-Three

 


October 12, 2020
7.06 Miles in 1:13:59
Mood: Alone, but not lonely. 
Soundtrack: The Bill Simmons Podcast and The After Disaster

It was almost freezing as I started out on this run...a balmy 33 degrees. It's been awhile since it's been that cold, and it had me realizing it won't be long until I'm running all bundled up with sweatshirts and gloves. Honestly, that made me a little sad, but at least this chilly fall day was tremendously beautiful along the Highline Canal trail, and the cooler weather meant that for the most part I had the trail to myself this morning. There were a few people out for walks and runs, including a guy who passed me like I was standing still, but generally it was less crowded than usual. 






Eleven Hundred Eighty-Two

 


October 10, 2020
8.03 Miles in 1:17:22
Mood: Neighborly 
Soundtrack: The Avett Brothers "Magpie and the Dandelion" 

The trees are changing colors rapidly, but many of them are still green, and sometimes there are yello, green and brown leaves all on the same tree. This is a confused tree, I'd say, but it sure is pretty!

I ran almost two laps before meeting up with my friend Drew to do a Pokemon Go trade, and then the two of us did another lap around the park, as he wanted to get in a bit of a run and asked if it was okay to run with me. It was nice to be able to have someone to chat with and loop around the park with, so that was cool, and then just as we were about to say goodbye, another friend of mine named Matt saw me and said hello. It was the most socialization I've had at Wash Park in forever...it was pretty great.






Eleven Hundred Eighty-One

 


October 8, 2020
8.04 Miles in 1:23:43
Mood: Spooky?
Soundtrack: Waxahatchee "Saint Cloud"

The Halloween decorations are coming out in force now. I enjoy this skeleton riding a mailbox like a horse, but the true underrated star of this show is the pink brain just plastered on the front of the mailbox for no discernable reason. It looks like some oddly chewed gum, and I'm here for it.

Also, it was on this run as I ran next to a cemetery in Littleton that I learned that I live within a very short distance of the grave of Alfred Packer. I had no idea.






Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Eleven Hundred Eighty


October 6, 2020
7.48 Miles in 1:18:18
Mood: Finding and loving a chicken head
Soundtrack: Frightened Rabbit "The Midnight Organ Fight" and James Germain & the Grey Gray Days "Criminal Heart"

When a chicken head is growing out of the ground like a plant, you can be certain I will take a photo. This is without question the greatest thing I have ever seen in Highlands Ranch. I love it.







Monday, October 5, 2020

Eleven Hundred Seventy-Nine

 


October 3, 2020
8.02 Miles in 1:19:11
Mood: A lovely day for new earbuds.
Soundtrack: Counting Crows "Somewhere Under Wonderland" and "Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation"

My mom gave me some sport wireless earbuds for my birthday, and this was the inaugural use, and I truly love them. They stay put in my ears, sound great, and have enough battery life to last me for as long as I could possibly care to run. Add to those the fact that my wife gave me Ear-Pods, which are next level cool, and it was a very earbuddy birthday. I broke them in with Counting Crows, which felt right, and it was basically a perfect day at Wash Park on top of all that. Fall is the best. The only downside to it is that winter is definitely coming.






Thursday, October 1, 2020

Eleven Hundred Seventy-Eight

 


October 1, 2020
7.06 Miles in 1:13:56
Mood: Happy Birthday to me! 
Soundtrack: Reply All

I'm not saying that whoever put out this diorama on the side of the Highline Canal Trail did it specifically for my birthday, but if you WERE going to do something for my birthday, putting out a cool box with dinosaurs, dragons, and Squidward's house with an eyeball on top of it is a pretty good gift for me. I was already in a good mood since it was my birthday, but this bit of awesomeness of the side of the trail bumped my mood up even more. I really like this box.