
Every year for the Holiday season we travel down to the southern region of Apulia (think heel…) in Italy to be with my husband’s family. Most of my friends envy me because the weather is slightly warmer than up north. That’s not always the case. I still have to wear a winter coat and sometimes even gloves. What I love about coming down south is the change in light.

This is the big difference between indoor and outdoor running. How are you going to notice the change in seasons if you’re running on a treadmill? If you’re sweating indoors you’re going to miss that slight change in light as you travel south a few latitudes. You definitely won’t get to stop and admire a shadow on a wall or see the light streaming in perfect geometric lines through the branches of olives trees.

You will most surely miss the incredible spectacle of billowy clouds just hanging out in the sky. I run for a lot of reasons, one of them being that is allows me to observe light in its many shapes, forms and intensity. That is something that a treadmill can’t give me.
Wishing you all a wonderful 2012 filled with light in all its forms (and magic, puffy clouds too!)