Tuesday, February 27, 2007

RUNNING WITH PLANES




What a gorgeous day to run. I set out to do 9 miles, but felt good and did 10.
I kept seeing huge military cargo planes, probably C-130's, flying close by, flying low, all on the same flight path. I saw no less than 7 of these lumbering oxes (oxen?) during my run. Flying so low that they nearly grazed the treetops on the ridge, and as the first one I saw disappeared behind the mountain, I waited for an explosion, but none came.

It made me think of our son Jon, who flew in C-130's as navigator and electronics technician during his service in the U.S. Coast Guard in Hawaii. They did search and rescue, border patrol, and a lot of training, like flying in loops returning to the station, buzzing the runway without touching down, and climbing again, with a heavy load of fuel. Maybe that's what these planes were doing.

I also thought of Jon as I came to an unfamiliar intersection (farther along on this road than I've been before), which offered me a choice of Miller Road or Pitcock Lane. Naturally, I would take Pitcock Lane just anyway, because... well, just because. But I also took it because it reminded me of Jon: sometimes he flew with a female pilot who was offended by the word "cockpit." When she was aboard, they had to say "flight deck."


Stats: 10.1 miles
1:40:19..... 9:56 pace! Yay!! Click on my trainng link in my sidebar to see the gooey details.

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