Mr. Blue Skies

It's gorgeous here in Northern Virginia, blue skies with puffs of clouds and temperatures in the 60s. There were a ton of people on the trail at 9:30 when I set out on my run, and then I remembered it's a holiday. Usually, runners on the trail ignore each other (including me), but today, maybe because of the weather or the holiday, everyone was smiling and nodding. I haven't been running with my iPod recently, but I figured it would be a treat to listen to music on such a pretty day.

My iPod is the really old kind with the four buttons across the top, so sometimes it acts a little squirrelly. Sure enough, about two-thirds of the way into my run, my playlist skipped about a half hour ahead and all of a sudden ELO's Mr. Blue Skies came on. The song has a really fast tempo (DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun) and I have a little deal with myself that whenever it comes on, I pace my footfalls to each beat, which means I run much faster than usual. It's not quite a sprint, but it's definitely a "pick-up" interval. I purposely put this song near the end because often I can't make it all the way through at that pace-- even when you think the song is over, there's this kind of finale bridge thing (I no speaka da music) that seems to draw on forever and it gets really long, especially with the hills on my route.

But today I kept up all the way through. It felt great! What would once have been a hard run for me was easy and exhilarating. Part of me wishes I had brought my stop watch so I could have timed myself. But I think it was better just to be running fast in such spring-like weather.

I even said "hi" to people as I passed by.

Hey, there, you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race...