First Run

I went on my first run here this morning.  It was glorious.  I had awoken around 5:00 - still adjusting to the time difference - and gone out to the living room to write in my journal. It was still dark, but about 30 minutes later, the birds started, and within 10 minutes or so, dawn had broken. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to catch some audio of the birds.  Suddenly, it was like I was in the middle of a jungle (or at least how I imagine being in the middle of a jungle would be, having never been in one).

I ran along Kihei Road, pictured above, and took the following pictures on my way back to the condo. Though dawn broke quickly, it is then followed by a period of an hour or so as the sunlight gradually coats this side of the island.

In the distance is Kaho'olawe Island.  The dark spot between the boat and the island is Molokini Crater.

The sun on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains, as seen from Kama'ole Beach Park. 

I was surprised, but guess I shouldn't have been, at the friendliness of people I passed on my run, whether locals on their way to work or other joggers, walkers and cyclists.  Almost everyone waved or said "Good Morning" - a real change from what I'm used to back in Salt Lake.

I am planning to build up my mileage while I am here. I started running again a few weeks ago after taking almost eight months off, having shifted my fitness emphasis to the gym. I have run for most of the last 11 years, although I have taken several breaks during that time. Each time I have done so, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to get my body back into the groove.  

This last time, for example, I initially had a lot of problems with pain in my kneecaps. That lessened over time, particularly after I figured out what stretches to do to alleviate the problem.  I was running consistently over 20 miles per week before this last break, and I hope to get back up to that level before we leave Maui.

Our condo building this morning after my run.

I want to close today's post with a couple of quotes from a book Mark and I have been reading called, "Into the Silence." It's about George Mallory and other British climbers who attempted to climb Mount Everest after World War I. The author writes beautifully, and the following passages simply took my breath away  In the first, the author describes one of the characters:

"He never practiced religion in an orthodox sense, but all of his life was infused with a celebratory quest for the wonder of beauty and friendship, the sheer vitality of being human and alive."

The second was written in reference to a climber who had died on a rock face in Wales:

"Such were the sensibilities in the years immediately before the war, a time when powerful and virile men could speak of love and beauty without shame, and sunsets and sunrises had yet to become, as the painter Paul Nash would write [in reference to the horrors of World War I], 'mockeries to men,' blasphemous moments, preludes to death."

Mark writing in his journal this morning.