When my kids were little, we would celebrate the summer solstice (aka: the longest day of the year) by spending all night at the pool as we anxiously waited for the lights to come on in the water, and then taking a final swim before changing into pj's right there at the swim club and stopping for ice cream on the way home. It was my way of holding onto every second of light before the days started to get shorter. Even though there is a lot of summer left, it feels different after that one day.
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| This is the best night of my entire life |
There is something about summer nighttime running that is magical. Maybe it is the long shadows, or the smell of honeysuckle, or the feeling that the day will never end, even as the sun is fading. I have had several of those runs these past two weeks as we ramped up the Elementary School Challenge into a summer series of just 3 weeks. 4 runs a week, following the same pattern we began last June at our first challenge run. That is a lot of running and a lot of pretty sights along the way. We have finished runs just drenched with sweat on 95 degree evenings, as well as slightly damp on an unexpected cool and breezy night.
Each run starts where the previous run finished, so we have made our way from one side of the county to the other, and I am amazed at all the beauty that surrounds me. As many times as I have driven these same routes, I have not fully appreciated how pretty the farms look at twilight, or how sweet the log cabin is surrounded by wild flowers.
The hills are tough to run up, but those views from the top make the trip more than worth it.
Summer should be about exploring, playing, and squeezing every moment out of every day, and that is what I am doing!
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