Live Oak is a beautiful place to work and reside. The rural landscape here is much easier on the eyes than in Kendall, part of south Miami, where I lived last year- though Miami is beautiful in its ways, too.
Here, I can walk or ride my bike to open fields with flowers and cows. For long term living, I like that much better than amongst a maze of crowded freeways.
The people in Live Oak are great, too. They are very friendly, as one would expect in a town in the Deep South. It can get a little quiet here, though. The most popular restaurant and bar in Live Oak is actually closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday night is the time to get into adventures there. There are a couple of other bars that I sometimes go to on Saturdays, but it is inevitable that I see the same people over and over again, at the bar and then at the grocery store and everywhere else.
Gainesville is not too far away. But that is Gator country, and it is a town with which I am unfamiliar. I went to Florida State for law school, so I am much more comfortable in Tallahassee and walking into places where there is a lot of garnet and gold as opposed to orange and blue.
Live Oak has Tallahassee beat for cost of living, traffic, peace and quiet, and rural scenery. I am a bigger fish in a smaller pond here in Live Oak than I would be in Tallahassee.
In 20 years, if I am in Live Oak doing what I am doing right now, I will probably say that it has been a happy 20 years.
Still, if I lived in Tallahassee, I would take advantage of what that place has to offer. I would try all the restaurants, attend the plays put on by FSU’s Theater Department, go to many of the sporting events, especially football and baseball, and probably audit a random evening college class each semester or each academic year.
So I have also begun reaching out the 80 or so miles to Tallahassee, trying to renew a connection there and recapture a bit of my days as a student.
The main vehicle so far is weekend runs in Tallahassee organized by the Gulf Winds Track Club. Every Saturday morning, there is a 5k or 10k race starting at 8am. Each week, it is in a different part of the city. I see some of my colleagues from law school at these races, and that is a good feeling.
The first of these races for me was the Springtime 10k/5k in downtown Tallahassee.
It was raining all night and into the morning leading up to the race. I set my alarm clock for 5am, and struggled to get out of bed and get going. I thought I would get to Tallahassee with plenty of minutes to spare. But by the time I negotiated the traffic lights and found a parking spot, I had to run to the registration tables to avoid missing the start of the race. The sky dumped rain on me the whole race, but it was a breath of fresh air to be in Tallahassee again and see some familiar faces.
Now, for the first time in my life, I am regularly running 10k (6.2 miles) during the week to be as competitive as possible in the longer races. It amuses me, the number of people in Live Oak from work- clerks, bailiffs or other court personnel, who tell me that they see me on the road, running all the time. I really do not train that much compared to the more serious runners in these races, but even people in the bar in Live Oak have told me that they see me out running.
The past two races, I have set my alarm clock for 4am on Saturday morning. This works for getting me there on time.
What this means, though, is that I cannot go out on Friday night, the best night to be out in Live Oak.
Today was the Red Shoe Run benefiting the Ronald McDonald House in Tallahassee. The course took me through the beautiful Southwood community, over rolling hills of large, new homes and open landscapes of fields and a golf course. It was the first time in my life that I have run a 10k race.
Some runners talk about experiencing a “high” as they pile on the distance. Between miles two and four I was feeling pretty good. It had everything to do with the novel scenery around me, though. I doubt it will inspire me to train for a marathon. My runs of the same distance down familiar roads in Live Oak are just something for me to get through at this point. I would much prefer to bike them. The newness of what I was seeing today is what made the run very pleasant.
All of this is an effort- a new hobby that requires me to wake up at 4am on Saturday. It was cold, windy and misting today. I was shivering when the starting gun sounded.
Today, too, I saw no one from the law school other than a girl whom I asked out a couple of times when we were students. She was running with her new husband, and I let her be.
So there was no one I knew, and I ran alone.
But today, the overall experience was enjoyable enough for me to keep skipping Friday nights out in Live Oak, waking up at 4am, driving to Tallahassee in the dark and running these races by myself.
We will see if my resolve remains a month, two months and more from now.
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