A Lightless Run

Distance: 1.25 miles
Time: (roughly) 10:34

A little over half a mile east of our house is a holiday spectacle. Last year Deborah and I were driving around randomly when we ventured down a street and noticed some glaring lights. From a house up a ways we could see lights flashing at regular intervals, casting a bright glow into the dark night air. As we approached the house it became clear that what we were seeing were Christmas lights, a lot of Christmas lights, radiating from a small house. The lights were flashing in almost a rhythmic pattern. We lowered the windows of our car to hear if there was music playing, but nothing. Then we noticed a sign on the fence in front of the house saying to turn our radios to a certain station. We did so, and suddenly the lights were flashing in a pattern that matched perfectly the Christmas music now playing in our car! We were blown away by the whole thing! We parked our car and watched for a while. This was one of the most elaborate Christmas displays I had ever seen. Throughout that holiday season we returned to the decorated house several more times. And as soon as this Christmas began approaching, we couldn't wait to revisit the awesome display. Well, last Saturday we decided to drive down the street and check it out. We figured it'd be too early for the lights to be up, but maybe they had started decorating. To our surprise, all the decorations were up, but no lights were on. It seemed the dazzling spectacle was nearly ready to go.

And so tonight I decided to make the holiday house the destination on my run. I figured, since all the decorations were set up, there was a pretty good chance that the lights would be on tonight. I measured out the run on mapmyrun.com and found that it was about 0.6 miles to the holiday house in a straight line heading east from my house. Altogether, a run to the holiday house and back would be 1.25 miles. So I decided to go for it. I was greatly looking forward to a treat at the halfway point of my run, rocking Christmas music synced to a bright light display. My run to the lights was a little rough. My legs felt heavy and I felt like my pace was pretty slow. As I neared the house I tried to see if there were reflections of lights in the sky, but I saw nothing. I began to get disappointed. And sure enough when I reached the house it was only dark and quiet. No lights tonight. I could again see all the props, figures, and lights strewn about the yard, on the house itself, even up on the roof. The only thing lit up was a digital countdown clock that read "37 Days Till Christmas" in bright red lights. I took a deep breath and headed back. My run back felt a lot better. I was more loose and fluid. I even had a pretty strong kick at the end. My final time of 10:34 was okay; I'm guessing my mile time was a little under 9:00. It was a disappointment that the lights weren't on at the house, but it is only November 17th and Thanksgiving hasn't even arrived yet. I'm sure I'll have several more opportunities to fill my run with spectacular holiday lights!