Greetings from Balmorhea, TX!

Run Stats:
Day: 327
Miles Completed: 1200.2
Miles to San Diego: 899.8
Miles to El Paso: 185.8
Avg Miles/Day: 3.7
Marathons Completed: 45.8
Longest Run Streak: 9 Days
Current Run Streak: 4 Days
Playlist Favs: Serial Podcast

Bible Verse of the Day: "Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others." - Colossians 3:13 NLT

Run Reflections: Well it's a Tuesday night and I don't usually post something on a weekday but I've reached the next town and crossed the 1200 mile mark so thought I'd go ahead and make an entry. Running highlights from this past week include longer run of 9.5 miles on Sat AM that went really well, followed by some shorter recovery runs since then. My groin strain is still bothering me some but I think the recovery runs at a slower pace have helped. I just finished reading a book called "My Year of Running Dangerously" which is a true story by a CNN reporter named Tom Coffman who trained for a marathon with his daughter and ended up becoming an ultra-marathoner. If you like running, it was a fun and informative read and I laughed out loud several times. For me, my goals are set a lot lower although I've signed up to do the PCB half on 12/3 so it was good to get that longer run in and have it go so well. With the time change, a lot of my runs continue to be in the dark and, thanks to Mia Grace, I have included a short video clip (like 7 seconds - but hey you have to start somewhere) at the end of this post of me running with my new noxgear visibility vest. I feel a lot safer with the extra visibility but still feel like I need more light to see where I'm going when there isn't a street light or car headlights to illuminate the path. Enough of this though, let's get on to the discussion of Balmorhea, a surprising oasis in the middle of the west TX desert.

Balmorhea, TX: Balmorhea is a small town in Reeves County, TX. A few miles south of the town, near the smaller town of Toyahvale, is the Balmorhea State Park. According to the website input on texasescapes, the town dates from 1906 when someone figured out that the water from the San Solomon Springs was flowing faster than they could drink it. The unusual name of the town is an amalgam of letters from the names of the land developers Balcome, Moore and Rhea. Texasescapes identified that, "Today the water is still flowing at an estimated rate of 24 million gallons per day. The cool, clean water flows right down the main street before it's channeled into the fields on both sides of I-10. Nearby Balmorhea Lake holds the water until it's released for irrigation." I've included a picture from texasescapes of a ditch with the flowing water alongside the roadway.

The park itself seems like a pretty amazing place. The actual park website,Balmorhea State Park — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, describes the park as a cool oasis in the high desert and provides a lot of additional information and pictures. The park was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. More than 15 million gallons of water flow through the park pool each day. The pool is up to 25 feet deep in some places, covers 1.75 acres and holds 3.5 million gallons of water. The water temp stays around 72-76 degrees year round.

Visitors can enjoy a variety of activities at the park including swimming, scuba or skin diving, camping, nature study and bird watching. They can also visit a restored "cienegas", or desert wetlands, which is a home to endangered fish and other wildlife including the Mexican Tetra, a smaller relative of the piranha. According to an input I read from one visitor, "if you take a tortilla into the water with you, it will disappear in a cloud of swarming Tetra's." - Yikes! I can't imagine why anyone would take a tortilla into the water with them but that seems like a pretty interesting story.

I have included a picture of the swimming area I found on the texasescapes site. To me, it was interesting to look beyond the pool area to the desert and mountains in the background. I don't know about you guys but I was not expecting to find a giant natural water park out in the middle of the Texas desert. I know I've said this before but the vastness and diversity of our country that I have discovered as part of this running challenge has continued to surprise me and continued to be a highlight of this experience. I hope you are enjoying it too.

I've been at home by myself (and the dogs) since Saturday and have to say that I'm really missing my family. I'm flying up to Nashville tomorrow to catch up with them and then we are driving over to Memphis to spend Thanksgiving with Judy and Herb. I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving and take some time to reflect on how awesome God is and the many things that we all can be thankful for. I'm thankful for a lot of things but, in relation to this virtual run and blog series, I'm thankful to be healthy enough to pursue this and thankful for all the support and encouragement from family and friends who take the time to read these inputs.

God Bless,

Pat