5:20 am, Friday morning. I open the front door of our house
and step into this almost surreal but oh so wonderful world around me. It’s
still quite dark but the first shy daylight has just made its presence. The
many tones of green that can usually be seen around here during the day are now
still one single tone of dark, very dark green, while the sky is slowly
changing from black to dark grey to dark blue. Thousands of little lights are
far below me, lights that will still be illuminating the dark streets and neighborhoods
of the city for another 20 minutes or so before day really starts and they can
be turned off.
To one side, I can clearly see the two majestic volcanoes
Irazú and Turrialba towering above the sea of lights, with their early morning
dark black color contrasting nicely against the dark blue sky. From the top of
the Turrialba, a huge column of heavy black smoke is rising up. The volcano had
already shown some activity during the last years but really seems to have
woken up now, with some big explosions and eruption of ashes, rocks and even
some magma in the last few days. Ashes spread all over the central valley – the
day before, I had also found my car covered with a thin layer of volcano ashes.
I’m wondering what’s in Turrialba’s plans: increase activity, stay on this
level, go back to sleep? Time will tell – it’s always a bit alarming when these
things happen as you don’t know what will come next, but at the same time it
gives us some incredible views, wonderful live postcards of Mother Nature seen right
from your doorstep or from out of your bathroom window.
I can’t resist to take some pictures. Then, I put my phone
away – it’s time for my early morning run! I start with a 600 meter walk up a
slope, using this as my warming up exercise. After that it’s time to start
running. Up the hill, down the hill, back up again – living in the mountains
makes for a challenging running route no matter what direction I go. Around me,
birds are starting to wake up and singing their nice ‘Good Morning’ songs. From
a distance, the Irazú and smoking Turrialba are witnesses of my efforts. On the
road I encounter some other runners, some bikers, some people leaving early for
work, just a few cars and lots of silence and pure, fresh air. These are the
moments that I really don’t miss living in the city!
About 50 minutes and 7.5 km later I return home and while I’m
stretching a bit in our back yard with a view of Turrialba’s smoke column (the
volcano itself is now hidden behind clouds) and with the early morning sun in
my face, a flock of beautiful green parakeets passes just over my head, letting
me know with quite some noise that this is their territory, not mine. When I
step back inside, I hear some other noises coming from above: my daughters just
woke up and have started their early morning conversation. I just love to hear
them talk to each other and have a great time together while they wait for my husband
to appear in their room.
Some people will tell me I’m crazy for getting out of bed
this early to go for a run. I’ll tell them they’re right. And I’ll also tell
them I’m proud and happy to be one of those crazy early morning runners. Life of
a runner is good. Life of a Mom of twins is good. Life of a running Mom of
twins, even better!
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