Maiden Voyage

Its been 2 weeks today since I have moved to my new place and for this reason or that reason I hadn't run in the new 'hood other than after work.  I don't know why on a couple of occasions I chickened out running at 5am when I was use to do it all the time in the other 'hood, and honestly its more runner friendly where I live now as not only are there normal sidewalks everywhere, but I literally walk out of our gate and step foot onto the TCJester path that all the bikers and runners use.  AND its definitely well lit.  The only thing is running under those overpasses which is awesome for safety not having to cross intersections, but spooky because you can hear bats and there are homeless people that live up in the crevices near street level.

I don't like running after work, because its still hot as hell here (not AS hot as it was, but still 90's) and I dont like waiting until 6:30 or 7 to run, so this morning I was bound and determined to get my ass out there.  Scared or not.  It had to happen.

I have mapped out several different routes/distances using my favorite site for doing that, and all of them are on surface streets for the most part avoiding the bike/running path.  Besides that thing is actually boring.

So at just past 5:10am this morning I stepped out into the morning darkness and began my run.  I ran with my music, only one earbud in of course, and when you are out there running and not in a car, its way more lit than it appears when you are driving it.  Kind of like how if you go over a hill/overpass in your car and it 'doesn't seem so bad' but then you are standing at the bottom of it and you're like...wtf?

Totally different.

I posted on Facebook that I was heading out, a generalization of where I would be running and that if I hadnt posted again by a certain time, someone needed to come look for me....  :O)... So I set off on my route and honestly because it was so well lit I had no problems whatsoever with any scarey feelings.  There were a few people out, until I ran down this one street then I was alone but it was fine.  Still well lit.  I did pass up the street I was going to turn on and before I knew it I was a bit farther than I had intended and just modified the route on the fly.

So I feel sooooooo much better now that the first run is out of the way and I feel confident that its perfectly fine...its just a bit scary the first time as is a lot of things I suppose.

The actual physical portion of the run was good.  It was definitely cooler (73) out but still major humid and by the time I returned home an hour later, I was drenched.  Not sure why that surprised me, but it did.  Not so much the sweat, but the amount of it....

Now I am much happier because my run for the day is done!  I just love running first thing in the morning!!! 

Do you????