Stories of an Everyday Runner: Summer Moments

Summer mornings are one of my favorite times to run. It is warm and maybe even a little humid, but the hot sun hasn’t made it high enough in the sky to make the humidity unbearable. Though, I must go ahead and confess here that I am probably one of the few runners who actually likes to run in the heat and humidity.

One particular summer morning run started out normal enough. I have a few variations of my route, just to keep things interesting. This morning, I thought I would just run my there and back again route (Anyone read The Hobbit?).

I tend to think about random things while running. You know, important save the world type stuff like what will I eat when I get back or how I will get everything done that day. So, I was deep in thought, but still aware of my surroundings, when I came to complete stop. In front of me, just off the sidewalk in the grass was a huge deer.

It was a female and she was just standing there looking at me. And I just stood there looking at her. She couldn’t have been more than ten feet away.

I was having my very own Stand by Me moment. Of course my first thought was I have to take a photo of this, but something stopped me. This moment was not a moment to experience through a viewfinder. It was one to enjoy without the hindrance of technology.

We stood there for what seemed like a long time, but was likely less than a minute before she darted away into the woods. Scared by a car or something, I don’t remember. The spell was broken and the magical moment was gone.

After she ran off, I resumed my run thinking how lucky I was to have such an amazing experience. It is the little moments that make life great. Don’t you agree?