Before the thunderstorm:
4.4 miles
74 degrees
mississippi river road path, north
After the storm:
1.25 miles
63 degrees
mississippi river road path, south
Went out for the first part of my run extra early this morning, so I could fit it in before the severe thunderstorms hit. I started at 6:15. I like running this early. It’s so quiet and calm outside. Very little noise, hardly any chattering. The neighborhood was still sleeping and I felt (almost) alone.
In A Philosophy of Walking, Frédérick Gros writes: “one never truly walks alone: Everything talks to you, greets you, demands your attention: trees, flowers, the colour of the roads. The sigh of the wind, the buzzing of insects, the babble of streams, the impact of your feet on the ground: a whole rustling murmur that responds to your presence (54-55).” As I think about it, I suppose that this was true of today’s run too. I greeted several other runners and was distracted by the heat and impending storm. But, I still felt alone out there, in another world.
I picked up a really cool book from the library the other day: Robert MacFarlane’s Landmarks. It’s a massive collection of words used to describe landscapes and moving through them. No words for running, but there is a section on walking that included, among others, these words:
bamble: to walk unsteadily
beetle scrunchers: big feet
flinks: to ramble in a rompish manner, as a frolicsome girl might
bippit: stiff in the hips
bit the grit: to start a journey
slomp: to walk heavily; noisily
I’d like to archive or create a list of terms for running.
Running Words
- run
- jog
- trot
- gallop
- sprint
- plod
- shuffle
- fly
- clomp
- stride
- glide
- light up the path
- float
- crawl
- dart
- dash
- tear off
- bolt
- lope
- race
After the storm passed, and before the next one arrived, I decided I wanted to run a little more so that I could reach my training goal for the week: 30 miles. Much cooler, but also much more humid (47% before storm/ 86% post storm). Saw some trees down, near the path, but no big damage from the hail and 60+ mph wind that ripped through the area a few hours ago.