If these limbs could talk

It's hard to fully appreciate a live oak tree from these pictures, but you're just going to have to try harder! Some have been around since The Civil War. They get to be enormous. Occasionally I will climb them and attempt to not die. These pictures are from my most frequented running route on a marsh trail not too far from home.

Something else that is not well captured in these photos is the face-melting heat. And the swarms of biting insects. Thank you diphenhydramine hydrochloride.

Low tide, with pluff mud. As a side note, shortly after moving to Savannah we decided to go canoeing in one of these tidal creeks. Not taking into consideration the tides, we went out at low tide and tried to hike through this mud and were transformed into swamp things instantaneously.

Crabs scattering as I daintily attempt to avoid crushing their short, meaningless lives.

Single-track trail through the marsh grass

I took the phone along for another RunKeeper log. I bathed the phone in a good serving of sweat. Will need to find a new way to do this. This run was also in the afternoon; I will need to switch to early morning runs for survival purposes. I'm also considering how to best approach electrolyte replacement with all this sweating. At a minimum I will eat bananas regularly. If I am still cramping with longer runs I may start an oral potassium supplement or Nuun tablets. I would really like to avoid the whole "Robocop legs" situation from previous experiences.

The quick and the dead

I look forward to Saturdays because the cemeteries are open and I'm not at work. There is an abundance of dirt roads and trails through the woods and almost no other (living) people to boot. Today I took along my stupid smart phone to gussy up this blog a bit with pix. I also tried out the RunKeeper app for the first time and plan to use it regularly now.

I am about 1 mile from Bonaventure Cemetery, which is connected to a newer cemetery, Forest Lawn. Catholic Cemetery is also relatively close and has a section which is comparable in age to Bonaventure. Age in this case equates to amazing aesthetics and a diversity of headstones, crypts, monuments, etc. I regularly find random interesting things in the many nooks and crannies. For example, stones from a 17th century Scottish Church:

There are quite a lot of Jewish burials in Bonaventure:

More excellence. Notice The Confederate States of America iron cross:

Even the kids like going! It's like a giant awesome park that no one goes to.

Marathon. Again.

I'm committed to running the rock n roll marathon here in Savannah again. Forked over the dough and felt real accomplished. Now I just have to run it. My training plan isn't very structured at this point. I'm running about twice a week trying to get accustomed to the hellishly hot weather that is upon us in tha durty south. My priority now is to not overdo anything and slowly ease into long runs and more frequent runs. Sticking with the 2-4 mile range after work, alternating trails on the marsh and pavement aka skreets through the ghetto. Some longer runs through cemeteries on the weekends.

As far as equipment goes, using saucony hattoris and new balance mt110s for trails, saucony kinvara 3s for road. I'm very pleased with all of these. Socks-mostly cheap cotton or no socks for shorter runs, speede, swiftwick, and dry max for longer runs.

I plan to keep the training low-intensity until mid July when I return from a 50 mile hike with the boy scouts. Last year this pushed me into a different tier of fitness and I came home ready to push a lot harder than I normally would. Hills have the ability to do that. This is one disadvantage of being in the low country. Flat pancakes everywhere.

Of note, I found 7 freshly spent 45 auto casings while taking a breather the other day. No corpse in sight and seven holes in the ground suggest this was merely someone unloading their 1911 50 yards from the nearest backyard. Raised right, I took them home and added them to my growing heap of spent brass for future use.