Monday, September 17, 2007

Now Here's A First!


I actually was excited BEFORE running yesterday. Usually I’m pretty pumped up when I’m done, but apprehensive before. I still have my doubts about if I can even DO this!

So Sunday morning we all planned to head home again after spending the weekend with family for my mom’s service. I had taken Saturday off from running and needed to get in a good run in the morning before we left.

Just down the hill from my brother’s house is a nearly 900 acre preserve called Minto Brown Island Park. In 1990 I taught Outdoor School at this same park. I got to take 3rd and 4th grade kids on long walks and teach them about the environment, habitats, wildlife and conservation. It was such a fun job!

So I arrived with the kids before 7:00 am at the park entrance. Literally everywhere in this park are mountains of blackberry bushes! We pulled over and the kids and I enjoyed an early first breakfast of blackberries before we headed into the park! Julie and Keisha met us there and Keisha tackled the job of wrangling Carson and Hailey at the playground. Julie strapped on her roller blades and pads and came along with Gabe and me.

I can’t even begin to tell you how absolutely beautiful this park is. It has about 7 miles of paved trails and even more soft trails winding in and out of lush undergrowth and numerous types of trees. Some trails run alongside the Willamette River and others follow open fields. I did 3 miles running my new intervals of 4 minutes with 2 minutes walking. The watch I had was not great, so I think I did a couple 5 minute running stretches in there. It was a perfectly temperate, overcast morning and the scenery was gorgeous! What a great run!

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