Voices in my head

With the carpet installation, etc over the weekend, I didn't have time to get in my long run. I managed to find a two hour, rain-free window this afternoon to squeeze in a 12 miler. Instead of running several loops around the house, I headed down to Lake Sammamish to run along the lake trail.

It is a great gravel path that was created a couple of years ago through the "Rails to Trails" program. It is nice and level, and it generally stays about 100 feet from the shoreline. It was about 10 degrees cooler than my run last week, but we are still in the upper 40's, so it is still relatively comfortable.

I brought my Shuffle along and listened to a couple podcasts as I ran. One of them was the latest episode of Pheddipidations. This week's installment was the race report episode from the Worldwide Festival of Races. Steve shared some race reports submitted by the other 1160 participants from 45 countries who ran one of the events.

I had written an e-mail to Steve the night before the race, thanking him for both his podcast and for sponsoring this event. This last minute entry into a (free) half marathon was the kick in the butt I needed. As I ran the path today, I was surprised to hear him read my letter on the podcast. It wasn't my race report, since it was written the night before the race, but was more about why I was running. It was pretty weird to hear my words, spoken by someone else come through the headphones. My words about why I was running, while I was running.

It's a small world after all.