Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Twelve Hundred Seventy-Three

 


April 27, 2021
8.07 Miles in 1:27:41
Mood: PINK TREE!
Soundtrack: The Wood Brothers "The Muse"

It's late April, and this is my first pink tree post. It's one of those springs where the pink has been sorely missing, but I am thankful to say that we will not be shut out this year on the blog. Take in the pink tree goodness, as I don't know how many more we're going to see in 2021.

Also, I managed another eight mile run so that I could hit 100 for April without having to run any more times this month. (And the streak extends to 21 straight months.)  I almost certainly WILL run again this month, but for some reason the idea of hitting the goal today pushed me to go just a tiny bit longer than I might have otherwise.







Monday, April 26, 2021

Twelve Hundred Seventy-Two

 


April 25, 2021
8.01 Miles in 1:26:23
Mood: Hey! It's a beaver!
Soundtrack: Phoebe Bridgers "Punisher"

There is a recent trend to gussy up electric boxes to make them not only functional for electrical purposes, but also for them to double as art installations. I was driving up University Blvd a few weeks ago when I saw this beaver, and I knew that I needed to somehow include it in a run, even though it's not terribly near to where I usually run. So this week, rather than just run three or four laps around Wash Park, I started about three miles south of the park so that I could include a photo of this beaver electric box in the blog, and then ran up to Wash Park, did one lap, and then ran back. It saved me about six miles of driving, and I get to post this glorious bit of art, so it was definitely a win-win. Also I learned that there are 19 of these boxes in the south Denver area, so I may have a new project...gotta collect em all for the blog! There are 50 of these pictures (One animal for every state), but there only 19 are electric boxes.  This is the New York American Beaver. Watch this space for more coming in the future! 





Friday, April 23, 2021

Twelve Hundred Seventy-One

 


April 23, 2021
7.40 Miles in 1:19:34
Mood: To shoot? Or not to shoot? (That's not even a question)
Soundtrack: Barenaked Ladies "Everything to Everyone"

I saw this giraffe sculpture in a yard, and immediately knew I needed to get a photo. This was relatively close to my home, but on a street I don't run down too often, so it was a new cool yard art thing for me to photograph. Then I noticed that the lady who lives at that home was putting out her garbage for pick-up. (As you can see in the picture.) I briefly considered if I should be taking a picture, but it was an extremely brief moment, as I decided that anyone who went to the trouble of putting up a giraffe in their front yard would probably like it if some rando was taking pictures of it. Turns out, she didn't even look at me. Perhaps she saw I was there, but it was extremely clear that she did not care. I got my photo and moved on.





Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Twelve Hundred Seventy

 


April 21, 2021
7.54 Miles in 1:22:35
Mood: Finding inspiration in weird places
Soundtrack: Cold War Kids "LA DIVINE"

Today's inspiration comes from a Bank of America advertisement banner. I have a monthly goal, so turning it into action meant I was running the Streets at Southglenn on this dreary Wednesday morning. It wasn't exactly snowing, but it wasn't exactly no snowing, either. There were a few flakes being spit at me for awhile on this run, and the sun never made an appearance at all. I didn't exactly feel 100% enthralled about getting up to do this run this morning, but Bank of America has it right...those goals must become actions. So they did, and so I did. And now I'm seven and a half miles closer for April. Yay me! 





Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Twelve Hundred Sixty-Nine

 


April 19, 2021
8.29 Miles in 1:28:28
Mood: The storm blew in right quick!
Soundtrack: Father John Misty "I Love You, Honeybear"

I have never seen a weather system move in so quickly and noticeably before. When I started out on this run, the sun was shining, and while it wasn't warm, it was pleasant enough outside. Then, within about five minutes, the wind picked up and blew in a cold front that would bring icy rain and eventually snow into the picture. It went from sunny to foggy instantly, and the final two thirds of my run was somewhat cold and damp and uncomfortable. 

Fortunately, I found my photo for the day during the nicer portion of the morning. This front yard had some paving stones that were painted bright green and arranged to spell "LOVE". I found it odd, but the kind of odd that I live for. Of course I had to take a picture, and of course that picture made the blog!





Twelve Hundred Sixty-Eight

 


April 17, 2021
8.19 Miles in 1:24:34
Mood: Behold the power of juice!
Soundtrack: The Mountain Goats "In League With Dragons"

It's been a minute since I ran on back to back days, but I wanted to get my mileage back on track to get my 100 mile month goal for April, so I went back out less than 24 hours after my last run. It was an odd Saturday morning as I ended up doing four laps around the paved portions of Wash Park, and the weather varied greatly from heavily snowing to bright and sunny.

Once again, I had a low blood sugar episode, but I was able to handle it with a little help from a promotional juice guy! I ran past him the first time I saw him, he was holding a handwritten sign that said, "Free Juice!" I thought it said, "Free Speech" and I thought that was weird. Then, I did a double take and realized it said free juice. By the time I ran around to the other side of the park, a low blood sugar had hit me, and I was beginning to feel the awful shakes and lack of energy that come with it. I remember the juice guy, so I walked over to the other side of the park where I had seen him, and he was still there. I talked with him for a few minutes, and he was very friendly and he suggested this juice with kale in it that he said would do the trick. It didn't sound good, and it was green, but I needed the sugar so I took it. I was so wrong. It was DELICIOUS. I quickly finished it while walking away and it was so good, I went back to ask him if I could try another flavor because it was just so good. He nicely gave me another one, and after downing two juices, I felt much better. I had one more lap of the park to accomplish, and I felt great again. When I passed him by the last time, he pointed at me in a friendly manner, and I did the same back. I didn't stop, but he grabbed another juice and headed over to me and offered it up to me. I wasn't going to say no, so I snagged it and ran the final half lap back to my car with a juice in my hoodie pocket. God bless that guy!





Twelve Hundred Sixty-Seven

 


April 16, 2021
7.33 Miles in 1:17:19
Mood: Running in the middle of my work day.
Soundtrack: Frightened Rabbit "The Midnight Organ Fight"

This was a weird one, because I skipped running in the morning due to falling snow, but then I just took a really long lunch hour (Over 2 hours) so I could get a run in during the middle of the day. Worked out, okay! The only real problem was a recurring low blood sugar that had me stop at two different grocery stores during the span of the run to purchase food to combat the problem. Low blood sugars are the worst when I'm out on a run. I go from feeling great, to dragging so hard, and it happens so quickly. Thankfully I was able to fight through it and get a decent amount of mileage in despite the problem.

Today's photo was something that amused me. I passed several basketball hoops on my run, and they all had gathered snow inside of them. I don't think this usually happens, but the snow was so wet and sticky that they all had it. It amused me, so I made a photo of one today's photo. 





Thursday, April 15, 2021

Twelve Hundred Sixty-Six

 


April 14, 2021
7.41 Miles in 1:21:58
Mood: Another morning running in circles
Soundtrack: Weezer "OK Human" and AJR "OK ORCHESTRA"

I skipped my Monday run to get my second shot of the Pfizer vaccine, so it had felt like forever since my Saturday run as I started out on a Wednesday morning. The forecast was for rain and snow all day, so I decided to stay close to home in case in became uncomfortable...so you guessed it...Circles around Southglenn! I'm clearly running out of things to photograph at Southglenn, but I'm amazed at how many different textures there are on the building there. This one in particular is much different than the rest of the place, and there isn't even a business there. Also, I liked the cool lamps that were giving off warm light. Also, I listened to two different albums that begin with "OK" and it is my opinion that the AJR one is better, but the Weezer one has the best song. (That best song being, "All My Favorite Songs")





Saturday, April 10, 2021

Twelve Hundred Sixty-Five

 


April 10, 2021
8.51 Miles in 1:27:24
Mood: New music and Geese doing weird things
Soundtrack: AJR "Okay Orchestra" 

AJR has a new album! I love runs that allow me to listen to a brand new album from a band I like, so already this one started out on the right foot. I'm liking it, AJR is definitely staying themselves on it, any of these songs would have been right at home on their other albums. Made for an enjoyable run. 

Also, I see Geese so often that they either are rarely anything more than a nuisance or a non-entity to me; However, when I saw a few on the roof of the Wash Park boathouse, I have to say, that surprised me a little. I don't usually see them hanging out on roofs. It amused me, so of course I had to take a photo. 





Twelve Hundred Sixty-Four

 


April 8, 2021
7.28 Miles in 1:18:10
Mood: Cool art and even a new trail! Yay!
Soundtrack: Haley Heynderickx "I Need to Start a Garden" and Katie Pruitt "Expectations"

I remember the name of this art installation, but not the artist. That's on me, but I do like it. It's called "Pennant Whimsy" which is a good name for a cool little bit of art that has a pennant for every elementary school in Littleton Public Schools. (At least until some of them close and combine, which is scheduled in the next few years.) This particular bit of art is located in Cherry Knolls Park pretty close to the beginning of my run. Since it's close to home, I also went ahead and nominated it to become a Pokestop, because that would be cool. I love how the clouds are so textured in the background of this picture. It was a nice start to what would be a pretty nice run through parts of Centennial and Greenwood Village and by some enormous houses that must cost multiple millions of dollars. Also, I found a new small trail that I had never seen before...something that happens next to never these days now that I have run all over a five mile radius from my house...you can always see something new if you try hard enough.





Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Twelve Hundred Sixty-Three

 


April 6, 2021
7.28 Miles in 1:16:47
Mood: The squirrel has moxy. 
Soundtrack: Waxahatchee "Saint Cloud" and the Locked On: Nuggets Podcast

This squirrel was just eating a cracker and hanging out. He did not care that I was being a squirrel paparazzi, not one bit. He just kept eating his cracker. You've never seen such a poised squirrel. He was the hero of this run, as it was by far the most interesting thing I saw on this beautiful April morning. 





Twelve Hundred Sixty-Two

 


April 4, 2021
7.21 Miles in 1:13:27
Mood: Huzzah for Green!
Soundtrack: The Long Winters "Putting The Days To Bed"

It has just started getting warm, but spring is definitely springing. This is the greenest I've seen Wash Park in 2021, and it seems like it went instantly from brown to green. Also, I love this, as it means that winter is dying, and I love it when winter dies. Long live green!





Twelve Hundred Sixty-One

 


April 2, 2021
7.60 Miles in 1:21:54
Mood: Appreciating Southglenn and I run in circles and count the laps.
Soundtrack: Barenaked Ladies "Everything to Everyone"

Another morning spent at Southglenn running in circles. I counted the laps this time, and I did 11 rotations around the complex. I am deeply thankful for this place which is both a good place to run (especially on snowy days) and a good place to refill your Pokemon Go items...sometimes at the same time.