Fast runs and an F1 - a surreal weekend

Something happened that threw a wrench in a beautiful 4 days of running and playing outdoors.  We had amazing weather here in Atlanta last Thursday, when I ran a near perfect 8 miler, solo, at sunset.  Nothing but me and the music.  It was glorious.  On Friday I enjoyed a much needed yoga class (the best kind of recovery), an afternoon of playing outside with the boy and our first family dinner on the deck.  On Saturday morning, I opted out of running the Vision Trek 10K Trail Race due to my left knee that's been giving me fits from time to time, and instead, volunteered at the halfway point aid station.  I had the pleasure of cheering on the runners and spending some fun quality time with the other volunteers.  Then today, my friend Stacey and I battled rolling hills and strong winds, and emerged victorious after a fast (for me) 10 miler.  Truly, a near perfect extended weekend.  Except on Friday night, an F1 tornado just barely missed our house.

Some of you who have known me for a long time may remember my intense fear of tornadoes.  They have always, in fact, been my biggest fear in life, for some unknown reason, and Friday night was probably the closest I've ever come to one.  The thing that freaks me out the most is that in the hours leading up to its touchdown, we had no rain, no storms, no wind, nothing really out of the ordinary, save for some lightning in the distance.  Then all of a sudden the hail hit, out of nowhere.  It was so loud and we moved so fast to get downstairs to the basement that we didn't quite realize what was happening.  The power went out, and our windows in the basement are covered so we had no idea what was going on outside.  Turns out, the tornado took out a few of our neighbor's trees and a big section of their fence in the backyard, and another huge tree across the street 2 houses down.  Then it took out 20 or so trees (if I had to guess) at the park just down the street that we walk to all the time.  All in a matter of seconds.  I think it's probably a good thing it happened so quickly that I didn't even have time to process what was actually happening, or I might've gone into full on uncontrollable panic and hysteria mode.  In fact now, 2 nights later, as thoughts creep into my mind about what happened, I push them away so as to not freak myself out even more.  Thank God everyone is safe and none of our homes were damaged.  I've said this before and I'll say it again: Mother Nature is a powerful force, a force to be reckoned with.  Respect her.  Don't question her.  And don't wait 'til the last minute to take cover from her.