Daylight Savings Time

Why is my alarm going off at 2:00am? I must be running a race today. No, I have to get up and turn all my clocks back to standard time. Not really, that would be stupid; almost as stupid as daylight savings time (DST), right? Couldn’t we just do away with it all together? Arizona has figured out that you can’t make the sun shine any longer by turning your clock forward so they don’t observe the ritual.

I’ll be running a 50 mile trail race in Arizona next month. The course will snake through the McDowell Mountain Regional Park and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve just outside of Phoenix. My preparations are almost complete, except for a 35 mile training run I hope to accomplish this weekend.

I’ve enjoyed some fine running adventures in the past few weeks. Several back-to-back long runs kept me busy on the weekends while some early morning hill repeats midweek boosted my confidence. Because our days are growing shorter, I was forced to run trails with a headlamp several times. If we would just do away with DST, it would be light by 6:00am. We are not saving anything by observing DST.

My neighborhood below

N. Franklin Peak

Nevertheless, it was good training to run on technical terrain in the dark and a plus was seeing tiny spider eyes glimmering like fine jewels along the edge of the trail. Amazing! Another adventure took me around the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, TX where I ran the 26 mile Puzzler Endurance Run course with a side trip to the top of North Franklin Peak. Several friends joined me for the trip to the top, but then I completed the rest of my journey solo.

Tarantula

The day before, a mountain bike race was held on part of my route, so some signage was still in place while I was running. As I neared the end of my 30 mile loop, a sign read “One More Lap!” while another stated “You Can Do It!”. I just about fell over thinking about doing another 30 mile lap, but then thought to myself, “you’ve done it before and some”. The problem was that, on this day, I was not mentally prepared for more milage than I had set out to do. After all, running an ultramarathon is 90% mental while the other 10% is mental. What? It’s true.

I most recently enjoyed some crisp fall weather running at the BR Ranch along our southern border. I was joined by six of my favorite running partners, two of whom returned to running after injuries. One had a knee operation several months ago and another had a broken toe. It was nice to have the entire gang back together again and I didn’t have to listen to any political rhetoric either, because these were the four legged tail wagging types.

Sierra, Lucy and Harry

Taz-maniac

Running in one of our least populated counties, we saw no one all morning except for a couple of cows, a jack rabbit and a rogue coyote. I was reminded of this quote from one of my favorite authors. (I can only imagine what he thought of daylight savings time.)

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. -Edward Abbey (Click to read the rest)

See you on the trail.