Brighton, MI

Scranton Middle School

Run time: 58:14 + 2-minute kick

It was sunny in Brighton. Who could have predicted?

I actually never ran on the Scranton Middle School track, but if I ever stay in Brighton again, I will. It looked very nice. Plus there were trails through the school grounds woods. I thought it was walking distance from the hotel. Turns out it was long distance running distance.

So I cobbled together a run along busy roadways with no sidewalks, around ballparks, through suburban neighborhoods, and down well-manicured ditches. I got to the school over halfway through the run, so I just had to turn around and cobble back toward the hotel. There was actually a guy on a riding lawnmower going over his lawn in one neighborhood. There couldn’t have been much grass to mow, and if he was mowing just to collect the seven leaves that had congregated on his lawn, well, that was overkill.

Random running is not my normal gig. I do not settle in to my run if I do not see the complete setting in my mind. I kept looking at my map app to see how far I was from the school, and what might be the best route to get there, and could I run between two houses to get to a different road. I do not recommend looking at your phone while running.

When the time changes in Spring, I will go back to trail-running. I cannot risk running on a trail in the dark. Track running I can do in the dead of night. I often ran well after dark on the middle school track near our home in Oregon. It is exhilarating to run late at night on a warm summer night, listening to the crickets and the barking of dogs. If you take off the headphones, that is.

Running is a stream-of-consciousness activity. Well, I guess most things are. Running is a freer stream-of-consciousness activity than tasks requiring thought. It’s the body that is doing the work. You can’t let the mind control how to land your foot. Freed from control, it wanders and meanders. It is almost meditative, especially when the breathing is rhythmic. For some reason, meditation is the pursuit of mindfulness, yet also absence of thought. Running is mindlessness.

And the road goes ever on and on.