Yesterday, I drove a couple of towns over, parked at their municipal building, and went for a run. Near there a couple of days back, I had spied a road that seemed quiet, a candidate for a piece in a new route. In about a quarter mile from my start, I reached this road. The road was narrow, no shoulders; there was hardly any traffic either. There were trees and shade; the sun had started shining bright, so this was welcome. A man came out of some woods in front of me. I asked him whether there was a trail in there. He said yes. I went in. The trail was lovely. It followed along a small stream for a bit, and then turned right into the woods. Parts of the trail were muddy; the rains were not that long past. The woods were fragrant at this time of the year.

In a mile, the trail looped back to where I had entered the woods. I got out back on the road, and resumed my roading. The pavement abruptly ended, and a rough part of the road began. This was only a short stretch, though. There were cars and families with young kids in them parked up ahead of me. Past them, the road rose up in a climb. It was a pretty steep climb, but still very enjoyable. At the top of the hill, the road joined a bigger road. This one had more traffic, and still no shoulder. But these are the times of the corona, and I was not going to be shy about running in traffic.

In another mile, after a signal and a left turn, I reached another preserve. I had been to this a year ago, at that time just to scope out. It had looked all closed up, metal gates barring entry into the woods, and I hadn’t come back since. Today, I was going to make it my turnaround point. A MILF-y woman and her young son squeezed out through a narrow opening beside the big metal gates. It dawned on me that the metal gates were just a relic from the old times. Or they were to prevent cars from going in. There was no ‘No trespassing’ sign. My life up until this point has been a lie.

I entered the preserve through the same opening. Soon after, I found myself on a glorious trail. There were no humans anywhere. I had the trail all to myself. This was a beautiful trail, much like the other. This was longer and muddier too. But it was all really fun. The trail was marked with circular metal plates nailed on the trees, with directional arrows on them. I did not even see deer on the path. In spite of the circular metal plates, I managed to lose my way for a bit. Found my way again by wildly going around in ever-wider circles. The silence and the solitude were very calming. I talked a lot with myself.

After the trail completed its loop, I was back at the metal gate. By this time, it was almost noon. I was starting to feel hungry. I retraced my route. When I reached the other end of the Narrow Road, close to where I had parked, I saw that I would be just short of 10 miles. Some runners have an affinity for double digit miles. Some runners would be me. I started going in a different a direction just to gain enough for 10 total. When I turned back from that short spur, there was an old pickup truck on the road coming in my direction. I stepped into the grass on the side to let the truck pass. The truck stopped for me, but I was insistent in waving it through. Then I saw that the driver was waving at me. It was a guy who I usually see on my normal running route near home. He has horses, and he always wears a cowboy hat. That was neat.

After I got home from the run, the first thing I did was to make a donation each to the two organizations that maintain the trails I ran. That felt good too…

So I am thinking of joining the #100daysofcode. I’m going to write a trivial program to just tally my spending, which is not much in any case. Probably, I’ll get to learn some these cool things that everyone is talking about, and which make me salivate.