Water

Another glorious day for a run. The rain swept through yesterday afternoon washing the countryside down, and some of the countryside down the hill as well. But today it is all late afternoon sun and cool crystal clear blue sky as I walk out the front door in my VFFs.

I tell myself just a short run, 15 minutes maybe - 20 tops - and I will go slow. But as I start down the dirt road and onto a barely visible trail used mostly by me and the coyotes to get across the usually (although not today) dry creek bed, I am pretty sure that I am lying to myself. I have run this route before in shoes, when training for races and there is no way I will be back in less than 45 minutes at a real training pace.

My legs feel good and my feet feel great. In fact they feel everything. It is a lot to process for my brain which is mostly used to feeling only soccer related pain from my feet lately. I grin like an idiot as I splash through the creek realizing that I really don't give a shit if my shoes get wet at the beginning of the run. I jump out of the safety of the shallows into calf deep cold water. My feet are loving it and with regret I keep running out of the creek and up onto the trail. But I make plans to spend more time there on the way back.

30 minutes, a somewhat fulfilled self-promise to take it slow and not go too far, and 6 mud puddles later I am back at the creek. I take off the VFFs and splash in. My feet feel fantastic, like I haven't run at all. I walk on the cold stones and pebbles in the creek bottom, occasionally stepping up out of the water onto warmer boulders to look for better and deeper places to splash into. I soak my feet and legs in the cold, clear, fast moving stuff and dream of the next run.