I get to mark another item off the bucket list today. I've been itching to give running the Cades Cove loop road a try for a while now, and finally got the mettle up today. I'd planned on running 5, walking 1, then running 5, but by the time I hit halfway I was still feeling good. With the exception of three stops of less than a minute each (2 for bears, 1 for restroom), I ran the whole way. The best parts:
1) seeing a mama bear and two cubs about 30 feet off the road
2) deer like crazy
3) talking to bikers all through the loop
4) passing bikers going up hill
5) running while a bear, startled by the bikers in front of me, charged across the road less than 10 feet behind me
6) not being the startled bear's snack
7) making it!
Beautiful morning for a run. So nice I couldn't bear the thought of putting in the headphones, so it was two hours of hearing the world, my feet, and my breathing. Like Haruki Murakami put it so well... "I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void."
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