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January 4, 2007
Full Moon Running
Last night I had the BEST FULL MOON hike! I hiked up Elmore Mountain with a friend. The entire hike was on snow but it was at the right density that we did not need to use snowshoes or cramps on our shoes. We hiked up without our head lights and enjoyed being in the bright glow of the moon. Every now and then I'd forget that it was a full moon and turn around to see if there was a car with their head lights on following us. The scenery was beautiful. Snow was covering the trees and limbs as well as ice and the mountain side was glowing with bright light in between the shadows. The temperature was perfect; it must have been about 35 to 40 degrees which made the conditions terrific. It was actually probably closer to 40. We saw a few other people on the mountain as well. One couple was having a picnic dinner at the base of one of the ledges and another couple was hiking up with their child. I loved it and really wanted to camp out there all night long but unfortunately had a BIG pile of work waiting for me at home. When we got to the top we gazed at the stars, the moon, Elmore Lake, and the mountain slope for what seemed like a long time. We then ran all the way back down (2 miles, it was a very quick and slippery way down). We both fell down twice but it was so soft we just laughed and got right back up and started running again. Tonight the moon is still almost full and the sky is just as clear but unfortunately, my body is saying no even though my heart is saying yes! I was up until 2 a.m. getting some necessary work done last night and up again at 6 a.m. so I don't think another late night would be very healthy. But I am really looking forward to my next night hike.
Today I went to the gym this morning to meet an athlete. We biked for twenty minutes and then lifted for another twenty minutes. It did not feel that hard because I felt like we hardly had anytime. This afternoon I ran with my coworker and a former athlete. We ran the Fitzgerald Loop and despite my fatigue ran a good pace. We talked the entire time and the run flew by. My friend has a pedometer and watch that records distance and pace and he always challenges me to guess the time and distance. I always give him a hard time for looking at his watch every 1/2 mile or so as we are running. I always tell him it makes me run faster every time he checks his pace. He argues with me that he needs the watch to keep him on track and help him to know his pace and distance. I argue with him that an experienced runner can always guess pretty accurately the distance and pace. I argue that the experienced runner has the best internal clock ever known and should be able to read their body better than any instrument and if you really tune in you'll know if it is a day you should push or not. As always, at the end of our run he asked me to guess the distance and pace on the very hilly run that we did. I guessed the distance as 6.2 and the pace as 7.25. I was pretty close, according to his watch the distance was 6.18 and pace was 6.30. I told him my guess was great considering I used my internal clock. I have a good time giving him a hard time about his gadgets. He is great company and I enjoy hearing about the latest inventions in technology in our running realm as he is sure to always keep me abreast of the latest gear and he is bound to own it. After my run at school I went home and ran another 4-5 miles with Jen. I wanted to get 10 miles in for the day so I was happy to meet that goal. We ran the 4-5 miles around the neighborhood at an easy pace. I'm giving an internal estimate of an 8 min. pace :). Now it is time to get some sleep.
Posted by mary at January 4, 2007 7:08 PM
Comments
Hi Mary!
I commented to yours and Mark's comments over on my blog. Thanks again for the responses.
I went on a full-moon snowshoe run also last night and it was so awesome! No headlamp, just the moon and its reflection all over the snow. So awesome, you're right!
Have a great weekend!
Posted by: Meghan at January 5, 2007 3:03 PM
The full moon makes people hyper and run faster
Posted by: Eric at August 29, 2007 3:43 PM