Thanksgiving in the Forest.

The last four Thanksgivings, BB and I have taken a cheap flight to some international destination. This year we never found a good cheap flight, and there’s been a lot of chaos relating to some upcoming life-decisions that would have made a trip inconvenient this year. So we didn’t travel internationally. Instead, we drove to northeast Pennsylvania and stayed in a fancy B&B.

It was backed up against the state parks and hunting grounds. We went to some parks and went trail-running in the forests. Pennsylvania isn’t famous for being mountainous, but it has some steep bits in the Poconos, which is where we were. One run had about 500 feet of gain over a 5 mile distance. Another couple of short hikes had 300 feet each in about a mile. In total, we did about 1400 feet of gain over twelve miles of workouts.

I like trail running but the potential for getting lost is anxiety-provoking. Especially around the halfway mark of my run. I always start to panic that the way back is too far, and I’ll be lost and going for miles. So I often turn around when I’ve gone half the distance I want to go, in order to not get lost. But that means I miss the second half of loops. Luckily, my new watch helps with that, because I can see a small map of where I’ve gone. I think I just need to get more comfortable with trails.

I am very excited about some major upcoming changes that I anticipate will come to pass within a month or so. Time will tell, of course, and I don’t want to jinx anything. But I think some good things are about to happen and I am ready for the change. Life is good, but I think it will be (after a period of intense anxiety and challenge) even better soon.