Getting Grounded

I love Montana so much, whenever I fly back home, tears come to my eyes when I look down and see the mountains surrounding Missoula. But it still takes a while to re-acclimate myself after being back east. The cool, dry mountain air is so refreshing after the heat and humidity of NY and Ohio. Still, my first run after we got back I didn't feel so good. Then the next day I went for a very nice short run. I feel like I am finally back.

I have missed the feel of the earth beneath my feet. Even when we ran on "trails" in Ohio, they were paved. Knowing this would be the case, I brought my road-running shoes with me on the trip. I really missed my next-to-nothing New Balance trail shoes. Running with them on trails is about as close as I can get to running barefoot. My feet had begun to hurt from running on pavement. While it may be that people are meant to run barefoot, we are certainly not meant to run on pavement.

I missed the tall Ponderosa pine, the cool alpine desert/forest terrain. I missed that quiet alone time when I run for an hour and see no other humans, just maybe a deer or two. I do look forward to the day that the new puppy, Arrow, will be able to go for these runs with me though.

Arrow has surprising bursts of energy between naps. The other day we took advantage of one of these bursts to see how he would do on a walk to the creek (1/4 mile?). It was awesome! We have since gone on several walks of about the same distance, and he shows no sign of tiring. He is very smart and agile and stays right with us. Except, the other day when we got distracted by a snake and he decided to keep on going home without us. We were looking for him for a while before we thought to go all the way back to the house, where he sat calmly in the yard, waiting for us. Yup, he's a keeper.