Single Track

This morning I ran my favorite route on the trails. My friend Nichole plotted this particular route many years ago now, and it's the perfect run. Today, as always, it made me really, really happy. It made Rosie really, really happy, too. Now that I'm almost done marathon training, I plan to do a lot more trail running. Trail running is really different from road running and takes a lot more concentration, balance and agility, especially on the single track trails, which I prefer. Here's a poem I wrote some time last year about the very route I ran today.

Single Track
for Rosie and Sasha

We head out on a weekend morning
you more eager than I, but not for long.

Our favorite route
six or seven miles

linking up the trails
we take Loop
to Coronary
to Fence Line
Pastore's Point
Coronary again--
the hill the bikers say
makes mice out of men.

Out on the trails
we hear only
birds
my heavy breath
the babbling brook
the occasional scolding chipmunk
and whooping mountain biker.

Mind perfectly engaged
with the up
and down and
switching back
of the single track
knees lifted high
over slippery mud
and tripping roots.

The scents change
depending on elevation
sun and heat
moisture
ferns
pine
earth
sweetness like hemp
but you smell even more
on the scent of something
mole? rabbit? moose?

You wait for me in each mud puddle
cooling
resting until I pass
then you catch up
wait until you are by my side
to shake
water and mud.

More than halfway
that glorious spot
the cliff
overlooking
the east branch of the Passumpsic
we pause here and
look down
hoping to see bear or moose
come to drink
not this time.

Our last leg
we run through the field
behind big red barns
you chase butterflies
clean yourself in the tall wet grass
then back on the road
and down the hill
to home.

My final prayer
gratefully covered in sweat and mud:
to always have legs that work
and a good dog to run with.