running on the beach

so I've been expanding my run circuit slowly, as I've realised my other plan to improve my cardio (namely, exercising everyday for the same, shorter amount of time) wasn't going to work. where I used to run up the hill to Cwmdonkin park (one-time haunt of our local boy Dylan Thomas) and back, I expanded to running around the larger Singleton Park. and then I made the move to run on the beach. what's amazing about this is that the crucial element for me at first was that the beach is largely flat, and thus not as hilly as my prior runs had been (although getting back home involves near straight up-hill, but that's what the 'cool down' is for). so the motivation for moving to the beach was largely laziness and being sick of hills.

and then I was running the other day along the beach and this song came on (truth be told I think it was 'Don't Speak' and I'm very embarrassed by that) which I thought was a bit slow for my already quite slow running pace. my next thought was: 'hey, this is a great song to run on the beach to.' and then I thought: damn! I'm running on the beach! how many people get to do that?

why am I telling you (nebulous reader(s) who number about 4 and whom I know) this? I suppose because it struck me not that I'd taken the beauty of the place where I live for granted, but that it just never occurred to me that I would live in a place where there would be a beach to run on. never thought I could afford that, really--it's pretty pricey to live near a beach in the US--and it's only rich movie star types that run on the beach, right? and I've lived in beautiful places before--St. Mary's county is for many people quite beautiful--and Colorado is amazing. But it seems like I live in a place now where the beauty is usable in some way--that is, it's easy to get to, accessible, things to do once you're there, no bugs, paths through it, coffee shops along the way--that type of usable. friendly. It's not beauty-to-be-looked-at. it's beauty to be a part of. Gwen Stefani aside, that's cool.