Running with the Stars

Have you ever watched Dancing with the Stars? I have to admit that I have been forced to watch it several times with my wife. I watched the episodes with Kristy Yamaguchi so it was not all bad. This morning I had a chance to run with the stars. No, Kristy nor anybody famous that I know of were running on the trail. I am talking about the real stars.

It was a clear, cloudless, starry night. We hit the trail at 5 AM. While ascending the first hill, we were greeted with a falling star. I know that a shooting star is not really a star at all. A "falling star" or a "shooting star" has nothing at all to do with a star! "These amazing streaks of light you can sometimes see in the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids falling into the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. The short-lived trail of light the burning meteoroid produces is called a meteor". (This is from NASA)

Who cares as long as what we saw were natural fire works. It's some rocking burning up as it passes through Earth's atmosphere.

As long as we continued to look up into the sky, we could see the shooting stars. It must have been a combination of no moon and a meteorite belt that we were experiencing. I saw no less than 15 shooting stars. One even appeared to explode. As night gave way to dawn, the fireworks show ended.

Up near Mission Peak, the ground was frosty white. It was a picture perfect winter day. Even if it had been rainy, the east bay hills always manage to take my breath away. The sun rise was amazing over the San Francisco Bay Area. The City (San Francisco) had a yellow glow to it as the morning rays descended over it. Visibility was at least 60 miles. Cold nights tend to open visibility possibilities. Mt. Tam loomed ominously in the distance like a sleeping bear.

This mornings run included Dan L., Nadia C., and Andria H.. We had only one cancellation. There were no stars in our group. All of us run because we love to run. Even more important than the run is the time spent together. It's a special slice of time for all of us to run and let loose. We leave the fast pace of Silicon Valley in another compartment. It's not like we can leave it behind. It's more like putting it away in the closet for a while. It's always there. But so is our run!