Another post to an ultrarunning email group of which I'm a member. Hopefully you'll find this worth the read...
I was surprised by the number of people out and about so early this morning. Normally my 5am runs are fairly solitary, especially this time of year.
Not that the solitude is a problem; on the contrary, it is one of several motivations for running at such an hour - that all-too-oft cited enjoyment of seeing one's own breath condense in a backlit cloud under the streetlight while hearing nothing but that same breath, punctuated by the soothing rhythm of one foot landing lightly in front of the other.
Certainly, the foot traffic remained at a minimum. Twenty-something degrees tends to assure that.
However, the number of cars in the distance was somewhat surprising. It wasn't enough to disrupt anything from my perspective, simply something noted in passing, as the number of direct encounters was still relatively low.
A pleasant feature of this unusually busy morning was the view from atop a little stob of a street that has become the highest ascent of my morning runs.
Once the turnaround at the top had been made and my immediate path ahead screened for ice, I glanced up to see the lights of Decatur casting a magnificent projection of cool, yellow light onto the already thinning cloud cover.
The clouds have all but cleared out by now, promising a clear, star-filled run in the near future, but every now and then it's nice to be able to enjoy the scene provided by the much maligned blanket of clouds.
-nevels
