powered by the moonlight

Earlier this summer, when it was blasted hot and temps soared around 95-100 degrees for what seemed like weeks on end, I decided that I’d get up early and do a few miles in the morning before the sun woke up or while it was stretching, yawning and getting ready to start its day. that way I could get a few miles taken care of in the morning and then run again later in the day without having to endure the heat for 10 miles straight.

I wasn’t sure how long this habit of early morning jaunts would last but I was enjoying it. usually im a cardio junkie and shove everything in after work, combinations of lifting, biking/spinning, running, stairs just one right after another but then I decided I’d get up early to run on days I was gonna do a stair workout too, that way my legs would be fresh later in the day and ready for torture.

The past couple weeks its been cooler and ive been thinking, can I keep this up when its dark and cold? eh, that doesn’t sound too appealing but maybe the treadmill would offer some relief for those mornings when its too icy, cold and just downright dark.

This past Wednesday I wanted to get a decent dose of mileage and we were meeting my cousin for dinner (he’s in the navy, stationed in Hawaii and was visiting for the week) so I only had time to do 8 miles after work so I went out for an easy 4 miles in the morning. it was about 49 degrees so I busted out the gloves for the first time in months. The moon was huge and lit up the sky. During my run, I just kept thinking this is such a pleasant crisp cool enjoyable run powered by nothing but the moonlight. For some reason powered by the moonlight became the mantra that morning.

Today rolled around and I had a stair workout planned for later in the day so the morning run was scheduled. I set the alarm for 5:07 but kept waking up during the 4 o’clock hour and checking the time, so finally around 4:57 I decided to just get up and get ready to go. I checked the temp, 43 with 86% humidity so I tossed on some capris, long sleeves and grabbed the gloves again.

I couldn’t decide what route I wanted to go so it became a hodge podge of different ways, a combination of my normal runs based on my indecisiveness. This morning was also the morning of random thoughts while I run, sometimes while im running my mind wanders to certain strange things. here were my thoughts at different points during my run:

1. Its cloudy, wheres the moon today, its totally covered, this run today is not powered by the moonlight.

2. what might happen if I encountered a skunk? It could get spooked, I could get sprayed. strange thought but about 5-10 minutes later, I came across a skunk. There he was sniffing around in the grass, I figured it was best to avoid an altercation and turned around before crossing his path. I saw another runner and say hey theres a skunk up there, he said umm ok thanks. I think I caught him off guard; hopefully he was smart enough and avoided a potentially nasty stinky situation.

3. After seeing that runner, who was wearing a reflective vest, I thought, hmm maybe I should get a vest like that or start wearing my flashy thing again. the vest reminded me of health and safety training I had at work and how were required to wear vests with a certain reflectivity when on construction sites. I wonder what reflectivity that guys running vest was.

4. while by some bushes by home depot, thought shifted to, maybe I should cross the street, someone might be lurking in these dark bushes. The other side looks much better.

5. Hmm, theres a big truck. I don’t like trucks and vans when its dark out, they seem more suspicious, might be someone wanting to abduct me. eh, I normally feel safe here, theres nothing to worry about but in the early morning, its dark, its desolate, things happen.

6. Coffee sounds good, maybe I should stop at dunkin donuts. I can get my dad a pumpkin spice coffee, perhaps ill get one too. I wonder how many calories are in one of those, perhaps its best to stay away. I’ll get my dad a donut too.

I think those are the random things I had during my 6 miler this morning. I safely returned home, showered, checked the calories of the pumpkin coffee (too high for me to justify, so I went for the black hazelnut one instead), fed my cat and went to work. once I arrived I checked my email and saw a weekly newsletter from the city of Schaumburg. I took a gander, one article said to be on the lookout for a crook who had an accomplice and robbed an elderly lady, yikes! I scrolled down further and it said beware of skunks!! It went on to say theres been an increase in the population and how to get rid of them if theyre hiding by your house or living under your stoop. They also mentioned bats, gotta watch out for those too. I better keep my eyes peeled for skunks and bats during these early morning runs powered by the moonlight :)