The Best Run Ever

I know it's pretty hyperbolic to label anything as the best.  I've been on thousands of runs.  Many of them are mundane and repetitious.  How can I possibly pick one to be the best?  What is the criteria?  My fastest run, or the run in which I felt most comfortable?  The run in which I had the best company or came up with the best ideas?  The run with the most beautiful weather or sights?  I mean, I've run through the Redwoods where they filmed Return of the Jedi, at Hayward Field (the home of Oregon track), for 18 miles on a beautiful summer afternoon, on mountain trails and down back alleys, through ranches and forests, up hills and in gales, along the water and through Washington, D.C. (not to mention Las Vegas, Istanbul, St. Louis, and Moscow), through sheep pastures in Kenya and along the seaside in Ireland, and even in the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship.  But last week...how do I explain it?

I was at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and had about an hour and a half to kill before my cave tour.  I ran along the park road to the East Bison Flats trailhead and decided to meander back to the visitor's center along the defined trail.  It was an extremely beautiful trail and it was very well-kept.  I was in the middle of yellow prairie grass that seemed to go on forever and, before long I may have become entranced by the amber waves because, unbeknownst to me, I had somehow left the beaten path and was following the game trails.  At some point I stopped in a depression in the land to take in the scene around me.  I was surrounded by prairie grass.  To my left lay and antelope, chilling in the morning sun.  To my right I could see some buffalo grazing.  There were no cars in sight, no signs of civilization.  I was communing with nature.  It was perfect.  I stood there for quite some time, stricken by the emptiness and majesty.  I was without a watch, without a care, and was drinking it all in and contemplating my place in the world.  It was pretty heady stuff.  Eventually I returned to the cave tour, but I still cannot get that run out of my head.  It may have been the best run ever...