Just pushing easy through the evening

Sometimes there is that day that comes about, for no apparent reason, when everything falls into place, when the sun is just right in the sky, and the clouds sit light against the Ko'olau, the trails are covered in that early spring layer of leafy debris, and the air smells alternatively of night jasmine and wild garlic.   Every creature seems to sense it, the Sharma sit ever so alert on their perches beside the trail wait to greet you, answering you tweets, with bursts of splendid song, and wishing you on your way.  Even the mongoose move languidly across the trails, stopping to glance at the lone runner/walker.  Everyone you pass is lost in a private state of bliss.  

I pushed up the Hogback and felt extraordinarily good, feeling my back loosen, my knees take the shocks with ease.  I wasn't fighting the hill, and at too steeps it was hard push but was still bathed in that hot and heavy enjoyment of rising cardio and O2 starved muscles.   I jogged up beyond tree forts, and hit the turn and the rise up to the bench with a smile on my face.   19 on a simple day.  And I turned and headed up toward Moleka watching the sun in the sky, the color of the ground as I pushed in and out of the trees.  At the top of the switch backs I turned around and dropped back down at an easy pace, enjoying the sun, the breezes, the smells in the air, and the easy fluid pace my body was letting me set.   

Back down to the bench, the drop down Staircases, the turn and up Twisters and I was moving fast, so fast for so easy I thought, and so long since I have taken this hill at such an easy pace.  No mud, no downed trees, no slippery roots, no bad knees, no worries, I took it with a great thought of thanks.  "When you got it you got it and its like it never left you, and when it goes away the memory is suddenly so distant that its like it never was you who did those things.  We slip in and out of ourselves without thought.  At the top I looked around, feeling the lightness in my step and smiled as I dropped into Ginger Shorts.  The turn again, and up and along Easy's, that long upward trail toward Smokey's.   

I wasn't watching my time, I was feeling it, and enjoyed Rooty Run down past the Wash Board, the Two Trees, Foot Prints, across the stream and around Big Bend.  I slowed in that enchanted place, hating to turn down Center, but knowing I was having too much fun, enjoying the cool breath and the hot feelings on my legs and arms, the dampness of exertion, just a bit too much.  I bargained with myself, and turned and headed up Mangos. 

Hard up the hill, almost running, and going on, my breath afire, my heart pounding, a smile on my face, about as close to an orgasm as a man can decently be along the trails.  Up, the heart sounding like a drum,   up the rock wall, past the lookout into Cathedrals, and to Nahuina, where I had agreed I'd stop.   

The sun was lower in the sky, the golden light of the low sun casting strange shadows as I slipped back down the trail, and found Center once again.  I don't run center now, even when I feel great.  I took it at a good pace, but was aware of That Place, where I felt my knee give and I've never been the same.   

Time passed and there is no going back, but, but, sometimes the gods or the God, looks down and sprinkles dust on you and time is turned back and you can once again run like the wind. Or some semblance of it, and you forget that the trails are not what they used to be, and you fly once again.  

Down across the bridge, to the Wiliwili.  I stopped weeded around it, watered it from my pack, said a few words of encouragement to it, and walked on. I hit the Taro Loi, and it was dusk, and I shook my head and thanked the gods.   The veil of time had torn for a moment, and I had been allowed to step through.  It felt good,  but so does where I'm at.  

I have no regrets Brah, but it did feel good, and I think I could have kicked your ass on that run if you had been along!