Oof

Today I was going to run a 1/2 marathon at Squak Mountain in Issaquah. I got up, started getting ready, and just started feeling less and less motivated. I drank my coffee, waffled on whether I should do it, ate a yogurt, waffled some more, re-read the description, continued to waffle, then finally decided I just wasn't in the mood to do an organized run, and decided to do a run I've always wanted to do instead. Said run is at Tiger Mountain, and I've biked it tens or maybe hundreds of times: up Northwest Timber Trail, up the fireroad to Preston Railroad Grade, then up Preston Railroad Grade to another fireroad, then back down. 16+ miles total, wickedly technical, muddy, rocky, rooty , steep and gnarly.

So I did that instead. And I am whooped. Tore up. Wrecked.

But damn I feel good now. And my god it was fun, most of it anyway. As I got off of Preston and back onto the fireroad, a light rain started to fall, and I was feeling strong, and the rain dripping off the dense green trees and the grey gloomy sky and the puddles in the road and the mud splashing off my shoes all felt so right. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of, "this is home". So many rides and runs in this weather, and for all the attendant difficulty of cleaning up afterwards and getting ready beforehand, the damp grey northwest is a beautiful place to be in the wintertime.