I am one with the levee and the levee with me

10 miles. This was my favorite run of the year... I got a break from the wind today and got to run through the rare Eastern Washington rainstorm. It was dark and dreary and wonderful. Ran through the orchards and desert and loved every minute. The smell of wet sagebrush is the one thing I love about my hometown. Dry, dusty smelling sagebrush is no good, it was to be wet.

The wind was back today. I went and ran basically the same trail as yesterday.... not as good. Dry and dusty and windy. Bleh.

I drove out to another of my old runs. It follows a four-mile road through the middle of farmland to the base of a hill called Jump Off Joe. No word if Joe survived, but it's quite a climb from bottom to top. We used to do this once a year in high school - the road from the base to the top is about 1.5 miles long and climbs several hundred feet. One of these days I'll measure it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the run, and the climb confirmed to me that it is as bad as I remember. 11:57 was my time, 10:10 back down, so maybe it's a touch longer than 1.5 miles. I don't know. But fun day.  

Started out through the orchards again and tried to hit a canal road, but I couldn't find it and ended up running through the middle of a wheat field. It was actually more enjoyable than you might think; there's something about sort of barren wasteland that I like.

Stopped by a high school track on the way back and did 6 x 100m strides. Splits: 15.7, 15.8, 15.2, 14.1, 13.8, 13.4.