Running in Miniature

This morning's run was a loop around the Boulder Resevoir with an additional loop into the Boulder Valley Ranch Open Space.

As I ran it felt like I was in a bubble. Like I was in a movie set built just for me, similar to Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show, or maybe a massive diorama like third graders make. The set extended west to the Rockies rising so quickly; the south and east flanked by the rise of the Boulder Valley; and north extending to Haystack Mountain and then to the Plateau that sends the atomic clock signal into space. In that massive set I felt tiny, especially against Bear Mountain rising to 8500 feet and several 14ers rising even farther west.

Within my 'set', everything seemed to be deliberate, like it was built just for me to see and experience this morning; all the houses, the fences, the roads, the rocks, the water, the footprints. Everything was perfectly designed to fit in with its own perfect place and shape.

There was a perfect stillness to it all, even with the wind blowing fairly strong. It also seemed like time was stopped; there wasn't much movement anywhere - no cars, no people, no birds - just me and my dog and the sun rising in the east.

Part of me was confused, part in awe, part in a deep peace, part of me felt the experience to be perfectly normal. Nothing about this made sense to me in any logical or reasonable way and still it felt entirely normal being a place I'd been in dozens of times before, including yesterday morning.

Maybe this didn't really happen, maybe it was a different reality, maybe my waffles this morning had some extra potency. Regardless of what it was, it was another great run with an unusual setting. After the run - well I drove off into Lefthand Canyon, through the horizon and my imaginary movie set, and back to a reality.