I rolled over and grabbed my watch. It was 6:20 in the morning, 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. This is a frustrating feeling, but it saved me the excitement of trying to shut off my alarm quickly enough to not wake up any other camp staff in the cabin. The sun had already been awake for an hour, its heat shining through the window above my head and lighting up the room. The birds too had been awake and were doing their best to let the whole world know it. I checked the weather and slinked out of bed to go change into my running clothes.
My head still a little bit foggy, I put on my running shorts, tied up my shoes, and got a drink of water before heading out the door. I didn't bother putting on a shirt, because by the time I got to the camp mailbox I would be using the box for shirt storage anyway. Even though my legs were not ready, I started jogging down the gravel road. I could feel my shoes picking up dirt and flinging it onto the back of my legs and shorts, as it normally does the morning after rain. The only sound was the birds and my running.
My ears gradually adjusted to the sweet sound of shoes scraping against gravel. It is truly a unique sound that can put me into a good daydream just about any time. I ran along the road as it took a big turn to the northeast and out of camp past the mailboxes. Now I could see the sun shining brilliantly above the horizon, fracturing spectacularly off of the clouds still hanging above from the night's rain. As I headed north, I could see ahead of me a valley full of fog. To my right was a stunning small gorge headed down into the nearby lake. The cattle grazing there lifted their heads up to stare at me. Eventually they concluded I was safe, as they had every morning so far this week, and went back to grazing.
As the miles rolled by, full of long, easy, undulating hills on gravel roads, I loosened up and gathered myself into a groove. I allowed myself to daydream about the coming day when campers would come to camp for the first time this summer, I thought about next track season, and I thought about how great it could be to live somewhere like this someday. I went past my favorite fields to look at, more hilly valleys dotted with cattle, and was always accompanied by the sun illuminating the sleepy landscape. I had yet to see another human.
As I peaked over the hardest hill of the run on my way back, I could see a figure off in the distance. As I approached it, I could see the smiling face of Cassidy on her bike, out for a morning ride. She turned around and rode with me, commenting on the cows near the fence and how we had talked about them a few days before on a morning run/bike. She also mentioned how difficult it is to bike on wet gravel. I agreed. The conversation flowed, and I was lost in the beauty of it all. Before heading back into camp, I made sure to look around behind me to see the sun shining over the valleys, bouncing off the fog and spreading light everywhere. We came into the familiar camp and stopped in the parking lot. My time was faster than the last two days because Cassidy pushes me when riding her bike. I was wide awake now.
As we came to a stop in the muddy parking lot, I announced to her that I was going to do some hill sprints to keep building that strength. I would start by the lake and run up into the camp parking lot. I started walking through the soft, wet grass underneath a warm summer morning sky. I turned around to see Cassidy following me. She had her running shoes on. I smiled. The only sound was the birds.
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