A Different Route?

You'd think, running this little, I wouldn't get bored.

Welcome to S-ville: although I claim I'm not high-maintanence!

I think some of my friends would disagree. Perhaps with some justification!

Though one is still allowed to have temper tantrums when one is in one's 30's, right?

Right?

I pulled on my shoes and tried not to pull my super-tight hamstrings (ouch, was that first half mile painful!) as I headed out the door for some more scenic Charles running.

Flat out-and-backs, no matter how beautiful, are still ho-hum after a while.

The more unattractive, urban, gritty runs hold my attention longer.

Beautiful is beautiful, to a certain extent. Unattractive is unattractive in so many ways! And hints of beauty come through the dirty paper napkins and chicken bones, making them more note-worthy.

Unlike yet another beautiful curve to the river, or yet another water fowl arching through the air.

Of course, if I only had boringly unattractive, I'd be wishing on many stars for the beautiful.....

(Remembering parts of Alabama. Ugh. Though road kill is interesting in its own way, I suppose.)

So I need to find some good, short (5-6 mile) routes around Boston and Cambridge. Will have to bring out the trusty map and written directions while running again!

This time around, though, I'll stop while examining it. Those light poles and people come out of nowhere, I swear!

I exagerate for effect. There definitely are parts of the river run that are interestingly beautiful. Like the cattails next to the knotty trees across from Harvard, with mere fleeting glimpses of the iced-over river.

Which made me think, today, about the Chestershire Cat. Another person who had an amazing year!

How often does one get to move to another interestingly beautiful place, near to family?

And have a solid running year? And buy a house?

That last part is something I'm especially in awe of, living in the rent-sucking place that I do.

I was lucky enough to get to see her new town when I went out for a race on the West Coast.

Oh, and I threw a temper tantrum. But she's a good enough friend not to mind too much.

Not that she won't tease me about it!

The highlights are what make life interesting. If everything was boringly beautiful, where would the interest lie? I think that the Chestershire Cat, like Ivy League, Gorgeous, the Vivacious Redhead and Story Finder, had a year where finding those interesting dormer windows on that house in Bed-Stuy made it worth running through all those dirty paper napkins and chicken bones on Fulton Street.

It's like finding that sun spot hidden in the dark brambles.

Maybe one of the reasons that I tend to forget the negative, after a while. It's what makes the interestingly beautiful so interesting. Why fret over that which is essential?

At least long term, that's what I think. Short term, I worry about everything.

Enough cheesy card dialogue. The Chestershire Cat would rightly make fun of me for that, too.

I think we all miss her.

2010 was an interesting year.

Now to worry about 2011!