Fall in West Virginia

October came along scary quick this year.  Time seems to be running out on EVERYTHING - nice weather, studying for my PE Exam, preparing for my last race of the year, EVERYTHING.

As a runner, I have developed a love-hate relationship with the fall.

It's not hard to love the fall here in West Virginia.  When you get out away from populated areas (easy to do), the views are always spectacular, but more so than ever in the fall.  The leaves are changing now, and they blanket the rolling mountains with reds and oranges and yellows and leftover greens.  The weather has cooled a bit, and the humidity is dropping - for a place nestled in the mountains, the humidity in WV is surprising in the summer.  Two things we runners hate are heat and humidity, but fall is perfect running weather.  That's probably why cross country season is set in the fall.  The shortening days leads to more wildlife sitings at dawn as the animals start eating more to prepare for winter.  Just an all around great time to be a runner.  All of that, AND football and hunting season!

But this season also knows how to stab you in the back, especially as a runner.  The days are getting shorter.  I run at 6 am, which a month ago was great - greeting the sunrise every morning.  Now it's still dark as I'm doing my post-run stretching.  All those lovely fall colors, all of the West Virginia wildlife - I see very little of it on my runs.  The occasional deer that's close enough to the road for a passing car to illuminate it with headlights.  The cooling temperatures are great at first.  Then I'm putting on more layers on cold mornings.  Dew gives way to frost.  The humidity dips low enough to make my nostrils hurt.  And then there's fall cross country.  My last fall as a cross country runner was 2002 - that's 9 years since I was on a cross country team.  I miss having teammates, practices every day, traveling to races every weekend, wearing unreasonably short shorts in 40 degree weather.  Scientist-types say that the sense of smell is the most powerful sense for memory recall.  Cross country season is what a fall morning smell like, and longing is what it feels like.

October, as much as I love you, I sincerely hate you.  I'm ready for May.



My running right now is, well, running.  It's so dark in the mornings that I've had to start wearing a blinking light for safety.  My wife and I each got one at the Rock'n'Roll Virginia Beach Expo, and it's been a pretty useful little thing.  Since I'm cheap and probably will never buy another one, I only turn it on when cars are coming, and turn it off once they're safely past.  I plan for the batteries to last a good long time.  I had two solid tempo runs this week - 3 miles at an 8 minute pace.  This seems good for easing back into hard running, and my body is responding well.  I'm hoping to run longer tempos next week, and the week after be at full training mileage.

Enjoy the weekend, try to grab a bit more of that fading warm weather...