Our son’s kindergarten is situated a little way up a mountainside. It is close to nature, a place to experience play, a place to run around as much as little legs can handle, and freedom to discover who you are. My son loves running around, and sine he started kindergarten I have also created new yet old exercise routines. When it was our son and me all day, my exercise was carrying him, running around the playground with him, crawling around on the floor at home with him and going on little excursions together. Now when he has his new exercising routines at his kindergarten, I have returned to my old training form – running.
Every so often after having dropped our son off in the morning, I tighten the laces on my running shoes and take the road further up the mountain. The other day the weather was just perfect, the sun shining, blue sky, blue sea, glittering greenery. Having just had a stay-at-home-with-son-recovering-from-influenza-week, it was a bit tougher than usual but it was impossible not to enjoy the run in the morning sun. Especially so the the downhill parts.
My normal route takes me up the mountainside, I walk, stretch, jog my way up, and I finish the warm up just as I reach the highest point of the road where beautiful views of the city, countryside and sea meets me. Then the road turns and continues downhill all the way to the big road. I turn right, starting to head towards home before I do another turn and take another road heading up the mountain again. While not so high up this time, the road goes through rice paddies instead of through a forest and on my way down again I find myself taking an old paved street before ending up in front of a big pond full of lotus.
Running past this water reservoir is a beautiful way to follow the shifting seasons. The summer’s lovely white flowers have withered and the green leaves are now turning brown. Every time I run past here I look forward to seeing what the pond will look like that day. And sometimes I indulge myself to a little break and take out my phone for a few photos. Come spring, when all four or five seasons have come and gone, maybe I will return to the pond in another blogpost.
After the lotus I make a final turn and head uphill once more. This time through a residential neighborhood ending my run passing some rice paddies and a few industrial plots before taking the final little sprint to reach our house and a well needed shower. And when arriving, I every time think to myself – I could not imagine enjoying a nicer running course.
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