Tour d'Lufkin [Entered 1/1/06]

Saturday, I found myself in Lufkin instead of Austin, due to some car trouble on the road home from Mississippi. Is that enough geography? At any rate, I had been off the running wagon since the Monday workout here with the Gazelles, and I needed to get back out there to avoid excessive amounts of self-flagellation over more missed workouts. In Mississippi, it was still deer hunting season, and we were worried that I might be mistaken for a game animal, despite my garish day-glo running gear. It was also a little warmer than usual, so I just got a bit lazy. The only workout I regret missing was the Wednesday ladder workout, which I had planned to do as a sort of lengthy fartlek deal like I did in the past in Mississippi. Oh, well. I had a lot of fun with my entire family, which is a rare thing these days (rare that we all find ourselves in the same place). It was cool to see that the kids settled in right away to the different rhythm of life in the country, enjoying simple activities and not missing their electronica very much at all. Those days might be ending soon, I guess, but for now, it's pretty charming to see them happily join their grandparents when they go out and gather sticks and branches to put on the burn piles.

In Lufkin, however, I got out of bed promptly when the alarm went off, and headed out the door before I could convince myself that I didn't need to do a 12-15 miler. For the first time on a longer run, I used the iPod to keep me company, but I was very careful to run against traffic, and my head was on a swivel the whole time, watching for cars. Folks in Lufkin aren't used to dealing with lots of joggers on their roads, especially on New Year's Eve morning. I waited a few minutes until it got light, about 6:45, and then got going. It was nice out there, in the low to mid 40's, crisp and clear. After some preliminary touring of my neighborhood, I crossed over the highway loop and into Lufkin proper. Since my goal was to cover something over 12 miles, I just kept on going, following whatever whim or thought I had, and checked out a good bit of my hometown.

I made an alteration in my route when a train came through the crossing that I had planned to use, and ran down a different street full of memories. No worries. There was a time when I was concerned about riding my bike over railroad tracks right after a train had passed. I thought the rails would be hot enough to pop a tire, because pennies were always so hot after we put them on the tracks and let the train roll over them, flattening them down to shiny copper discs. Simpler times, eh? I made the usual passes by various friends' houses, the public tennis courts where I learned that game, my old Junior High School, now being used for some other purpose, and then I went into downtown Lufkin.

Running down Main Street (or was it First Street?), I marveled at how much was the same there. Sure, a good many of the stores were gone or had changed hands, but it still felt like the sleepy town that I knew growing up. The banks are all sporting the names of giant banking companies instead of "Lufkin National Bank" and "First Bank and Trust," but the buildings are just the same except for the signs.

The movie theater (one screen, of course) was now some sort of Holiness Church of the Something Or Other. I remembered being scared out of my wits after an all-day horror movie matinee that I attended there when I was somewhere around 12 years old. All those Vincent Price movies from the Edgar Allan Poe stories were pretty spooky back then. It was the kind of theater that had a big jar of pickles on the counter for consumption during the movies.

I checked out my form in the various storefront windows, and the super day-glo shirt looked pretty damned bright, I must say. I passed the First Baptist Church complex and thought about the many times I was there to participate in their youth group's music program. As a Presbyterian, I was sort of a hired gun, but it was a lot of fun there. After the church, I kept going and looped around the Civic Center, the site of our Junior and Senior Proms. I shuddered with the memory of the all-white tux ensemble that I sported my senior year. What was I thinking? The sign there was in Spanish this morning, honoring Teresa and her Quinciera (is that right?), which I suppose was a huge party held there the day before. Teresa's family must love her a lot.

Past the Civic Center, I rolled past what used to be the Episcopal Church, where I attended school for Kindergarten, 3rd and 4th grade. It's now a county-wide museum and history center. They've done a nice job of adaptive reuse there. Onward I went, down the other side of the Baptist grounds, and back into downtown proper. I rolled past dozens of lawyers' offices surrounding the Courthouse, saw the two big feedstores for the largely agricultural community that is Lufkin, and checked out the Courthouse itself, where I took my driving test a zillion years ago. I'm still a little bitter about my low score on the driving test, but hindsight tells me that may have been the officer's way of telling all of us that we really didn't know nearly as much about driving as we thought we did. I've done all right on that score.

Past the bus station that's still downtown, and then the Angelina Hotel, formerly a pretty swank place that hosted many a fancy party or gathering. It's now some sort of apartment building, which might be interesting to see some day. I ran past the Lufkin Daily News building, still exactly as it was when we toured it in Boy Scouts and on school field trips. I suppose the interior is quite different now, with computers taking the place of the press machinery, but it looks the same from the street.

I took a GU and some Accelerade as I ran past my Dad's old dental office and the site of my grandfather's medical office. My grandfather's office was sold and physically moved by the purchaser. I wonder what memories they've created in that great old house in its new location? As was the custom then, he used a two story house with a great rambling porch as his office. I thought of going to see him in his office, and how he'd always start the conversation by taking your blood pressure, no matter what the purpose of your visit was. Habit, I guess.

Dropped my trash in the dumpster outside what used to be Mac's Minit Market, where I would buy a tall RC Cola, a Snickers bar, and some chips after mowing the lawn at both offices right across the street. RC was the first that I remembered featuring a 16 ounce bottle (glass) with a screw top (metal), and they tasted great when they were ice cold. I ended up working for about a year for Mac at another location, but that's another story for another day.

I went up and down some residential streets and admired the nice old houses...the sort of houses that would sell for nearly a million dollars in some of the old neighborhoods here in Austin if they had a similar sized lot. Out again past the Lufkin Industries complex, booming again as they crank out oilfield equipment for places all over the world.

Snapping back to the job at hand, I did pick up the pace for the last 4 or 5 miles of the run, heading back to the house. I had picked it up a little as I went, and it was a very enjoyable run altogether. It didn't seem to be that much more stressful to do the "fast finish," which was a source of relief after my slothful week of non-training. Crossing back into my current neighborhood, I ran on people's yards when I could, enjoying the soft feel underfoot after the concrete and asphalt from the city streets. Finally, I was back where I started, and it was time to rejoin the real world after my trip through time. I did some strides in my parents' driveway and loosened up, but I felt really good. I was happy after a desultory week of training, and now I'm ready for the new year of training and the final push to Freescale!

Splits: 9:43, 9:21, 9:14, 9:01, 9:14, 9:01, 8:58, 8:41, 8:06, 8:01, 7:50, 7:53, and .4 miles at 8:07. 12.4 miles, moderately rolling to flat terrain. Overall pace 8:44, which felt pretty easy. No water stops at all. I drank fluids and took my GU on foot, not even slowing down much. My pals in Austin got to do 16 miles including Mt. Bonnell, which I'm sorry I missed. Really. But, fate intervened, and I got to enjoy my tour of my hometown and all that that entails. I'll take it as it came to me.

Have a Happy New Year!