Summer, summer, summer...wait, it's March?

Wow, what a heatwave!  Yesterday was close to 80, and here on St, Patrick's Day, we are going to be flirting with 80 again.  This is insane.

My morning run was beautiful and felt not unlike a day in June.  60's, plenty of humidity, and a little warm once the sun came up.  I was treated to a gorgeous sunrise over the lake.  In the picture below, there is open water in the foreground, but you can still see a shelf of ice in the middle of the lake!

Open your big eyes and take in the sunrise!

Yours truly, somewhere around mile 12.

I did 15 miles and saw some cool stuff.  Early into the run, I counted 14 turkeys roosting in their usual spot before the sun came up (that equates to 0.93 TPM - "Turkeys Per Mile!"), three deer, two eagles, a pileated woodpecker, mallards, geese, downy woodpeckers, dark-eyed juncos, goldfinches, and more robins and red-winged blackbirds than I could count.

This week also saw some new arrivals.  The eastern bluebird showed up in my neighborhood on Wednesday, the 14th (arrived on March 29th last year).  And today the song sparrow made an appearance (I had him showing up on April 2nd in 2011), along with dozens of common grackles (last year they were here March 26th).  So far we are trending roughly a week and a half to two weeks early this season.  

My first race of 2102 is tomorrow - the St. Patrick's Day Human Race in St. Paul.  Many years I have run this in tights, gloves, stocking caps - all the winter gear.  Tomorrow will be in the upper 70's again, so I will be sporting the summer running outfit!  No plans to run hard, just planning to enjoy the day and the start of the race season in Minnesota.  More to come!