Day 13: Midnight Run

Date: February 14th 2011
Distance: 10 miles
Weather: Clear and Starry

I knew it was going to be a late one because I didn't start until 10:30pm and it was a 10 miler. I had previously planned to run to the Provo Canyon which is a straight shot north, just outside the Provo city limits. I briefly considered copping out because that's where the boogieman lives, but I figured I'd have the energy to outrun him. I knew I would need to pace myself so I started out slow.

I learned my lesson. If you run too fast, then you burn out and die. If you run too slow, it becomes an agonizing death march where the utter boredom causes you to imagine pains and magnify the slightest of discomforts. Either way, you die.

The best pace for me is to jog so my breathing is regular and I can continue running indefinitely without becoming out of breath. It took me a while to settle into that rhythm.

It was really neat to run by the mountains that late, once I got past most of the city lights. The stars just pop and the mountains are these behemoths that preside over the landscape. It's really striking.

Once I got near the mouth of the canyon, I began to feel a strong wind. It was whipping through the canyon and howling around the huge boulders that guard the entrance. My body warmth was drained in about a minute, so I started to run faster, just to keep warm. It felt like running into battle. I stopped on the steel pedestrian bridge that crosses the Provo River right as the Jimmy Eat World closer "Dizzy" cranked up. It was pretty cool: midnight, five miles away from home, dark as night, not another soul around, and I've got the river underneath me, and these steel beams above with mountains on both sides and these electric substations all around while the wind is just tearing by.

I didn't stick for long because I got cold and I had to pee (the latter, making the run back mildly uncomfortable). There was basically no traffic and the wind was at my back so I made it home without incident.

And without any run-ins with the boogieman.