Dark Early

Time: 29:59
Distance: 4.29 miles
Pace: 6:59
Map

If you thought it got dark early in Charlotte, you should come visit Palm Springs. For those who aren't familiar with southern California, Palm Springs is a resort-ish community about 110 miles east of Los Angeles. The city gained fame in the 1940's when the movie stars of Hollywood looked for an escape. Occasionally, a star of current relevance comes to "the desert," but mostly citizens here in PS are sure to point out Liberace, Bob Hope or Sonny Bono's old homes. It's a little sad, but kind of cool... if you grew up on black and white television.

Anyway, Hollywood stars chose Palm Springs because of its close proximity to LA and, more importantly, the weather. The San Jacinto mountain range has 13,000-14,000 foot peaks and is located just to the west of the city. The mountains prevent storms coming off the Pacific Ocean from raining on the desert community. Tourists come to Palm Springs during the winter months as the weather is predictably warm. While the mountains create an ideal microclimate of warm weather, they also produce an early nightfall. Once the sun drops behind the peaks around 4:30 pm, its immediately a few degrees cooler and notably darker. By 5:00 pm the stars are coming out and at 5:15 it's obsidian.

I didn't bring a headlamp on the trip so I spent tonight's run on familiar territory. I tried running on a golf course for about a quarter mile, but didn't want to step in a sand trap. I may have spotted Tiger Woods practicing his swing while avoiding the paparazzi. I unfortunately didn't have a camera because I hear the tabloids are offering $300k for his picture. Hopefully I didn't ruin my chances for an early Christmas present.