I love fall. It is my favorite time of year. The days get cooler, I get “good sleepin’ weather” at night, the leaves turn pretty colors. One of my stranger addictions during the fall is running. I love to run during the fall. When the air turns crisp, I get edgy if I am not running (fortunately only a couple of times over the last 8 years).

This week the temperature dropped into the 60’s. Things were still humid, but I was able to get three 1-hour runs in. I ran twice with the CVCA cross country team, which on Thursday made me run faster than I normally do, and keep doing the hilly-loop part of our woods trail, which was hard. But it felt good.

There is some point for me in running where running becomes peaceful. That usually happens when I can run for about an hour comfortably. That happened this week – my runs allowed my body to do its thing while I was able to enjoy my surroundings and think (or not think). Granted, the uphill parts on Thursday were not in this category (I was running hard by the end), but running is comfortable again.

I have a pattern at work where I have a “crash” around 1:30 where I am tired. It usually lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. The odd thing is that during these times, I really look forward to my run. My runs are my time – where I can be by myself, be away from computers, where I can think about my day, about God, or about other big (or small) issues. I have also been using running time to listen to books-on-tape (or books-on-Shuffle), which is a great use of the time.

I started training this year for an unknown marathon. Usually I have a specific marathon targeted. This year, all the marathons seem to be in late September or early October, which I won’t be ready for (I’m behind schedule for a marathon by about three weeks). So, running has been largely its own end, but I do have my eye on the Towpath Half Marathon. I should be ready for that, and I have never run a half marathon before (a half marathon is 13.1 miles, or about two hours of running for me). I like having a goal in my running – it keeps me on task. But at the end of the day (literally the end of my work day right now), running is something I like to do. I have been running on and off since I was in eighth grade (22 years).

Next week is looking fantastic – temperatures in the high 50’s or low 60’s and dry. I should be able to move up to a couple of hour-and-a-half runs next week. Oddly, it will be one of the best parts of my day.