Recollections

Between the wild turkeys and the red-tailed hawk my hat started to drip.

Each Saturday morning during the Summer and early Autumn of 2007 I made my "long run" in preparation for a marathon. In July I ran around the neighborhood. Six or eight miles. But, by August, it had grown to 10 miles.

Ten miles was enough to run to Coyote Creek Trail, run some of the trail, and run back home. Three miles to the trail, two miles to the wild turkeys' favorite lounging spot. Turn around and run back: ten miles.

Each week I ran a little further along the trail.

To run 12 miles: Pass the turkeys. Pass the park where the wild pigs dug up the grass. Pass the water ski slalom course, with skiers stretched out flat to the left, then flat to the right. Run a few hundred feet more and see the pelicans! For a few weeks a flock of large white pelicans visited the fishing pond next to the course. What majestic birds! Around this point my running hat starts to drip from the end of the bill. One drop every three or four footfalls. I ran past the pelicans and through a more heavily wooded section and turned around at Coyote Ranch. Each time I would take note of the warning sign about rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

In September and October the runs got long: 14, 16, 18, 20 miles. I just kept going further along the trail. There was so much to see.

Past Coyote Ranch I had to cross the creek in two places and usually got wet feet. Then past the old quarries, now wildfowl refuges. Ducks. Geese. Herons. Along this section a bobcat gave me a dirty look. The golf course was the midpoint of my 14 mile run.

To add a couple more miles I would go past the golf course, past the radio controlled airplane club, gawking as I ran, to the 101 undercrossing.

For those few 18 and 20 mile runs, I would continue under 101. The trail enters grassland with occasional clumps of sycamore and eucalyptus, and passes by more bird sanctuaries. Cross a wooden footbridge and there is that stretch of trail owned by the red-tailed hawk. This marked my farthest point. I remember the hawk effortlessly passing over the trail about 12 feet up as I labored to my invisible halfway mark, turned around, and began the long run back.

Summer Reading

I love to read, but don't always get much time. This summer I am treating myself to mostly Newbery Winners and Newbery Honor books. Here's what I have read so far:

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows*

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale*

Silent To The Bone by E.L. Konigsburg

Incident at Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert

Holes by Louis Sachar*

It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville

Skellig by David Almond*

Kit's Wilderness by David Almond

Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

* - favorites