Chasing Pavement

This morning I started my day like a lot of them have started recently: chasing pavement.  Which means I was locking my front door and pulling a sweatshirt over my head at 7:30am as I set out for an early morning run.  Now I've been doing this as early as 6am all summer long with sunshine shining bright, but this morning it was a little foggy and there was a chill in the air and I thought "Fall, I think we're finally going to meet again."  I live in Fresno, California, which is famous for those Indian summers that pull 90-degree weather into October.  We say that Fresno only has two seasons, summer and winter.  Those two seasons definitely take majority of our year, so I relish those few weeks we get of fall before the cold comes and the foliage dies.  I ran down Cedar to Barstow past Fresno State, past students hustling to their early morning classes and cars piling up while their drivers hurried to make the morning commute.  Then I quietly ran home, past the cows contently chewing grass on Bullard.  By the time I got home, the sun had pushed the clouds aside to warm my back.  And I walked up my driveway with a clear head and a smile on my face, I remembered all over again why I run: What better way to start the day?