7:52 a.m. - 2023-01-08
cold run
I hate running in the cold. But I have schedule considerations (work, fucking-off...the fact that coffee is part of my training regimen) that make daybreak the only viable time to do it. This morning, thanks to a full moon, I was able to set out before dawn. Cursing my tight legs and tucking my freezing hands into the pockets of my flimsy nylon shorts. Cursing also the way cold air stings the lungs and feels forced, unnatural. Like my helmet was cracked on some hostile planet.
But this was earth and our satellite hung high and bright behind me, illuminating the trail around my shadow ahead. Even as the eastern sky paled to reveal details (rocks on the path, silvery patches of wintergrass, the silhouettes of horses standing in a field), the moon reflected back in-kind and kept my weary shadow apace. With half a mile left to run, the sky began to glow in earnest and the linings of a few motionless clouds blushed sherbet-orange. By the time I'd crossed the the cattle guard home, with my nose and eyes running from the cold, the whole horizon was alight. Pink and pregnant with the promise of another goddamn day.
