Good morning!

My plan had a couple of snags this morning but I still managed to complete 14 miles.
Snag 1: No sunshine = no glorious sunrise. I surprised myself and only sulked for the first mile. It actually drizzled the entire time I was running but that actually ended up being a beautiful thing! Cool and misty = better running weather.
Snag 2: The entrance (and parking lot) where I usually start my run was closed because of the government shutdown. It’s a National park area:(
shutdonw
But like a die-hard-happy-marathon-runner-in-training I managed to work around the snags. I decided I would just run the neighborhood streets that run parallel to the beach. But after a 2 mile detour I arrived to see that the boardwalk was open! It was just the small area by where I start that was closed. It appears that the boardwalk is state/city. So I hopped on and covered an additional 10 miles doing 2 complete out and backs of the boardwalk. Unfortunately my main goal for this run was to see a gorgeous sunrise and to see the Verrazano Bridge (a.k.a. start village for the NYC Marathon) and get jazzed since the NYC Marathon is just 4 weeks away. #Fail!

bridgefoggy

As you can tell from this side by side visibility was in the toilet

sadface-novisible

it really was a bummer not to see the bridge. I needed to reinforce that with another pout

beachlayers

beauty without the sun. I love the horizontal “stripes” made up of the gray sky, the bluish gray water, the reddish sand, the golden sand dunes and the rusty metal railing.

I ended up seeing a beautiful color palette of “neutrals”. I’m actually thinking that I should paint the interior of my home in these colors. They feel calm and soothing, no? I also gave warning to the wild turkeys that it’s October. I don’t know if they know that Thanksgiving is next month. Just wanted to remind them to hide so they don’t end up as part of some family’s feast.

turkeys

FYI: Thanksgiving is just 6 weeks away!

sandart

Old-school sand art

Spent a few minutes playing in the sand. Then it was the same 2 mile detour back to my car and voila, I was done. I ate an apple in the car on the way home.

apple

After a quick shower, it was time for some serious refueling. A bed of spinach, 2 scrambled eggs, 1/2 cup of whole wheat couscous, a sliced up tomato and 5 glorious slices of turkey bacon. And a tall cold beer glass of chocolate milk to wash it down. Total calories: 850. But most of all lots of protein.

refule

chocolate milk and a jealous doodle • turkey bacon, eggs etc and a jealous doodle

I love that while the rest of the world slept in on a drizzly Sunday, I didn’t. OK well maybe I don’t love that. I actually miss the days of sleeping in. But that’s what the last 6 weeks of the year are for. I take a hiatus from running usually from 11/15 until 1/1.

Question: Do you like to sleep in or do you wake up early regardless?