Running with my camera

Today was a gorgeous day! The nicest we’ve had this spring since that freakishly hot week in March. I decided to go for a run. If I want to be a real runner, I have to run.

I drive across a bridge every time I go to yoga, and there are always people running along the water. I wanted to do that too. I discovered that my camera fits perfectly in one of the little elastic pocket things for the mini water-bottles on my fuel belt, so I swapped out one water bottle for my camera. That still left me 3 bottles. That’s 24 ounces of water and let’s face it, I wasn’t going to run a marathon here.

I didn’t time myself, or even check to see how far I was going. I ran, I walked, I took pictures. I kept wandering off the path to get closer to the water. I made friends with a blue-eyed husky. I heard bits of conversations as I ran past people. My favourite was the girl telling her running partner how much she really wanted sweet potato fries.

I encountered quite a bit of wildlife for a run in the city. The first was a groundhog. I named him Juan. At first, I thought he might be dead, but he was just sleeping. He woke up and smiled at me. Actually, I think it was more of a go away and leave me alone look, but whatever. He was cute.

I ran a little more, then I met Dolly and Daniel. They’re ducks. For some reason, they were swimming against the current. Dolly was doing ok, but Daniel kept getting swept away. It was pretty funny and I laughed at him untill I realized it might be bad karma, so I encouraged him instead. He finally caught up with Dolly.

I started running again, only to stop and look at a tree. He didn’t have a name, that’s just silly. But it was a really nice tree. Also, I wanted another little break, so I took a picture.

After my tree break, I ran until I saw some pretty purple flowers. Obviously, I needed a picutre. I’m pretty proud of this picture, because the backround is out of focus. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that. I’m actually not sure how I did it though.

I was looking for a photogenic bird, because that was the word for my photo a day challenge today. I saw this flighty little thing on a branch. Her name is Raven, even though she’s not a raven. Kind of like when people call their child Apple or Dallas. She kept moving around, but finally she stopped to pose.

I ran some more, then decided I wanted a picture of myself. Let’s hear it for self-timers. I had a scary few seconds where I thought my camera was going to fall off the rock and into the water, but it all turned out ok.

All in all, it was a great day. There was more walking than running, I think. But since I haven’t really been running lately, I feel pretty good about running at all. I had a good time taking pictures and I think my new friends liked having their photo taken. Well, except for Juan, but that’s just the way he is.