Day 4,367—So Many Cardinals—

 

   I was originally thinking I would run at Lone Elk today, but with the rain, I decided to run there tomorrow instead. I should plan to get there a little before 7 so I don’t have to wear a headlamp, which means I will need to leave home around 6:20 a.m. Today I was awake before that today, and it didn’t take me long to get out of the house. I was tired but not exhausted. I went to the loop first, then to Forest Park. I remember seeing a flyer about some kind of fun run this weekend, and when I saw a section of the street closed off, I realized I must have stumbled upon it. There were a bunch of elementary school kids sprinting as fast as they could. I saw some of them get gassed and turn around and wait for their friends.

     I started moving a little faster when I was running with them. It might have just been so many other runners out, but little kids going faster than me had to be a factor, too. I asked one of the kids how long the race was. He didn’t respond at first and then told me it was a 1K. He was slowing down, so I told him that the finish had to be close.

        “Just over that hill. You’re almost there!” He didn’t respond, but I could tell he looked determined as he started running again. I went to a section of the park with a huge staircase. I couldn’t remember what was at the top, so I just ran up it to see. There was nothing there, so I just came back down. I thought at first it would feel like something going up all those stairs, but in the end, it didn’t feel like much.

     I saw two cardinals in trees in bloom and tried to take a picture of them. There was the red boy cardinal and the yellowish female cardinal, not too far from each other. I took a bunch of pictures, but none showed the bird's full profile. It is always uplifting to see cardinals. They just make me feel like it is really spring. This is it. New life is everywhere! Part of me wondered if I possibly missed the GO! St. Louis Marathon, but I knew I had looked at the date right. The 1K had the finish line they use for the marathon. It looked like they were all having a lot of fun.