Flying Solo

It's a good thing Amy and I were able to meet for lunch yesterday. Our Sunday runs usually double as our time to catch up with one another and the various goings on in our lives. It's been several weeks since we've run together due to vacations, work trips, conflicting social calendars and the like. We had planned to meet and do the Art Museum loop this morning around 7am, but due to a vast conspiracy orchestrated by several different airlines and the weather patterns of the western part of the country, we were unable to meet.

So, I was left to go it alone yet again this weekend and set off to do the Tinicum figure eight. I wasn't sure what the Interesting part of the loop would look like - it's been a while and the last time I ran it, and at that time, it was even too overgrown for my taste. Much to my pleasant surprise, the trail wasn't too bad. I don't know if the Tinicum gnomes did some pruning or what, but I didn't need my machete.

The Great Lake Drain of '07 continues at Tinicum. I just checked out their website, hopeful for a link to what I'm referring, but alas, no mention of it. There are signs posted around Darby Lake explaining what is going on, if you're interested. But for those of you not lucky enough to have the wildlife refuge in your backyard, I'll give you the skinny: Basically, they are lowering the level of Darby Lake for a period of time (which is never very deep anyway) to expose a good portion of the mudflats. This will provide all sorts of good eats for migratory birds. Not knowing much about birds myself, whether or not there are more varieties of finches or warblers or pipsquack birds as a result of this project is lost on me. What I have noticed is considerably more herons and egrets. Mostly because they're big.... and cool looking... and bright white (well, the egrets anyway). As I was running the 95-side of the Darby Lake loop, I must have startled a group of egrets because they took flight - more than a dozen of them, rising from the water, just a few feet overhead. I think this might have been the first time I've actually gotten goosebumps while running. Beautiful.

I felt pretty good on the run today.... with the exception of my back, which continues to pester me with a persistent, dull ache that's becoming not so dull. The weather was perfect and despite missing my friend, I enjoyed the run.

9.25 in 83 minutes