A Dark day

I got a mild case of runners knee "Half and Half" half marathon a couple of weeks back, so I've scaled back on running a bit. After running hard and fast for the first 10 miles and feeling great for a strong finish, the pain seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was only possible to ignore for a few hundred yards, and from thence on I was reduced to walk/shuffle intervals. I finished with 2:22 on the clock, which I suppose wasn't so bad given the circumstances. Frustrating, but humbling. I think my body was protesting a lack of proper training, for the knee pain seems to have gone as quickly as it came.  Everything was fine on a five mile run around Turkey yesterday.

We've had more cloud cover than usual for this time of year. Dark skies don't usually lend themselves to great outdoor photography, but dreary and ominous can have its own beauty, especially at the pond with the lone tree.

It's not a no man's land

A few posts ago, I declared the sand bar that extends South from the I-44 bridge a "no man's land." Well I was wrong. On Tuesday evening I ran out here with hope of capturing some nice sunset pics with the bridge as a backdrop. I quickly noticed that a tarp tent had been erected a few hundred yards South of the bridge, on the leeward side of a sand dune. As I walked down to the river, someone emerged from the shelter and appeared to be studying my movements.

After some hesitation, I opted not to turn around. He was obviously down on his luck, and felt that he had no other place to stay. Perhaps he was worried that I was there to shoo him away. After a few minutes of watching me poke around in the brush for photographs, he went back into his tent.

The sunset didn't amount to much, but I still managed to get some fun shots with my S-100.

#SaveTurkeyMountain

For those of you who do not live in Tulsa, an Outlet Mall has been proposed for development on the West side of Turkey Mountain.

I struggled with how to address this issue on the blog. I could write a long and detailed post about how the proposed development will harm the adjacent wilderness area, but others have been much more eloquent about this than I could ever be.

Instead, I hope to have a series of posts that will attempt to show, in bits and pieces, and from the ground level, the beauty and mystery that is Turkey Mountain.

"Lynx Falls", taken in the Spring of 2012

Into the fog

Go out in the fog.
Watch the primordial void
give birth to our world.

Ramping it up

I put in about 30 miles over the break (Wednesday to Sunday) and still feel awesome. The Half and Half is on the 14th and I just might give it a go.

From my run this morning. Pics taken on my iPhone.

Exploring the Arkansas shoreline

On Wednesday I ran South along Riverside again, this time leaving the trail under the I-44 bridge. There is a huge sandbar South of the bridge that has great views of Turkey Mountain, and lots of cool flotsam strewn about, so I thought I would follow the shoreline as far South as it would let me.

Disciplined runners would not do this. Running through brush and on sand is not conducive to keeping a good pace. In fact, it was a very soft sand, so I walked the whole thing.

And that's OK. These days I'm running for the love outdoors and the adventure of exploring places both new and familiar. Pace is a low priority.

I followed the bar for a few hundred yards until brush made the way impassible, cut across the dune and came back to the Riverside trail just North of where I explored on the previous day. 

A cool little no man's land this is, between the bank and the river. I can't wait to go back and explore the treasures that have washed up over the years. Here are some shots of Turkey that I took with my I-phone: