My Running Shorts

I grew up in a small town in a rural region.  So small, in fact, that it is not a town but a village.  I logged many miles on roads with names like West Back Line and Sideroad 3.  When I return to see my family I revisit the worn footsteps of my youth, away from the familiar smog and traffic congestion of the city to the idyllic slow pace and scenic drives of the country.  In highschool when I ran my 5K loop from “town” out and around a concession (plot of land about 1.25 miles square) I drew confused stares from the pickup truck driving locals who were as apt to try and run me over (mistaking me, I assume, for a target in the fine sport of animal road-killing) as they were to give me way (usually with an increase in speed, you know, to get past the weirdo running in the middle of nowhere more quickly) on the gravel roads that tossed painful rocks into my delicate face.  Little has changed.  Voluntary running on country roads has not enjoyed new found popularity.  

Last weekend’s 24K Dirt Road Tour featured 9 dead snakes, 3 dead frogs, 10 heart-attack inducing gunshots (unrelated to the aforementioned dead reptiles/amphibians), 1 dead pile of feathers and bloody gook of undetermined origin, 3 living wild turkeys (a reported maximum running speed of 30 km/hours may explain why they were not on a Thanksgiving dinner table), 15 curious horses, 124 disinterested cows, and one little old lady determined to play chicken (I won).  It also brought me glorious tree canopies of vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows that enveloped the entire road and rained colour down on my head, the crashing sound of waves from a great lake hitting the sandy shore, and the first snowflakes of winter.  Sigh. Sometimes 24K just isn’t enough.  And yes, 250 kilometres north of my southern-northern home city, with snowflakes in the air and 40km/hour winds from the lake, I still ran in short-shorts and a t-shirt.  Like I said, you’ll need to rip Autumn from my frigid and frost-bitten hands.

 Title Reference:  John Denver – Take Me Home, Country Roads.  From the album Poems, Prayers, and Promises.  1971.