Clydesdale mornings

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) in 1981, my first husband and I returned to St. Louis. He was attending Webster University so we found a nice apartment a few miles south of Webster Groves. I was working at my first CPA job and dealing with deadlines, heavy workloads and other stress. Nearly every morning, I'd get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and go for a two-mile run. Never before and never since have I enjoyed those early morning runs so much. Why? My run took me past the stables and pasture at Grant's Farm, where Anheuser Busch raises Clydesdales.

Firmly in my memory is an early morning in the late summer. The sun rises and burns through the heavy dew on the grass of the pasture, creating breathtakingly-beautiful mist. The air smells sweet, the aroma of flowers and grass mingling. Several young Clydesdales graze their breakfast grass. I run past, hearing squeals and squawks from the exotic animals and birds housed within the Grant's Farm compound. My running path takes me a few hundred feet beyond the stables where I turn around to run by the pasture again. At the halfway point of my run, my legs burn and my lungs cry for oxygen. I hate running but I love this run. I carry the picture with me as I turn the corner and head back to the subdivision streets and then our apartment.

This article today reminded me of those runs and I am thankful for the memories.