Tiptoeing around the seasonal bend

Fall in New England is spectacular: running on trails of bright yellow leaves and vivid orange pine needles. Rounding a bend on a trail to find a tree on fire ahead — wait, that’s just Mother Nature messing with you, it’s another amazing tree turning color. Pretty soon, you’ve run an hour and barely noticed because the beauty of your surroundings is so distracting.

Sometimes I forget how beautiful fall can be here

Mother Nature is not subtle

view from my desk

Hitting the trails is fantastic this time of year of course, except that the leaves can disguise rocks and stuff, making it a little exciting. I went back to some of the trails I used to ride a lot in Rocky Woods a few weeks ago and had one of those sudden “oh crap!” moments on a fast downhill that was littered with loose rocks under the leaves. Rocks in Rocky Woods, who’d’a guessed?

But those obscured obstacles are of particular concern this fall. I hadn’t been to one of my favorite haunts in months (well, yeah, we’ve been traveling but) because I was injured last time I ran there. Fortunately it was summer, in the afternoon, and the sprain didn’t necessitate calling in a rescue ‘copter. Limping back to my car sucked, but not nearly as much as staying off that foot did — no running at all — for more than a month. I’d only been injured once, about a decade ago, and it’s a sobering experience. Made me feel like Time was tapping me on the shoulder.

Running is a great way to clear my mind, as long as that euphoria doesn’t backfire on me. I went for a little jog around Halfway Pond one weekend, enjoying the solitude of a football Sunday (which only elevates the superior feeling of not sitting in front of a TV stuffing my face) and –oops– I only had about 45 minutes of daylight left — right about the time I realized that euphoria-induced ADD got me  lost on trails on the back side of the pond. But I refuse to believe it’s possible to get too much of a good thing, so I just ran a little faster. God, it was beautiful. How soon can I go back?

Halfway Pond solitude

Lost meant I had to run this particular stretch about 3 times before I figured out what I was doing wrong

Tags: foliage, Halfway Pond, Medfield, mountain biking, New England, Plymouth, Rocky Woods, trail running