First beach run of 2009....

Yesterday I ran on the beach for the first time this year. It was a great experience. The combination of cool weather, wind and lack of people being down here meant that very few people were on the beach. North Litchfield borders Huntington Beach State Park, so if you run North you quickly are on an undeveloped beach. In the summertime there are pretty big crowds at the state park, but not this time of year. It is about four miles from where we stay up to the mouth of Murrells Inlet. There is a paved Jetty there that you can run about 1/4 of a mile out into the ocean on.

It was about 55 degrees with 20-30 mile an hour wind gusts on the beach when I ran. I had the wind behind me on the way up to the jetty and it was very pleasant. Once I got passed the public access areas in the state park, I had about two miles of totally deserted beach in front of me. I knew it was a great day for a run when I got to a section where dry sand was being blown on top of the hard sand to where it looked like I was running in a cloud and then the Chariots of Fire theme came on my iPod. (Yes, I have that cheesy song on my iPod and it was in shuffle mode I didn't plan it!). As I got to the jetty, the theme from Rocky came on. It was pretty cool to be sprinting towards the ocean. Once I got to the end, I ran the jetty back into the marsh and then turned around and headed back to the beach.

The trip home was not near as enjoyable as I was running into the wind, but it was still pretty surreal to be on an empty stretch of beach. I ran down by the water on the way back and had to jump the small tidal creeks that were draining into the ocean. That was a good distraction from the blowing wind in my face. When I hit the nine mile mark, I stopped and walked the last 1/4 mile back to the walkway. It was a great run and I hope to have another good one today as the weather is going to be in the 70's.