No Clouds in the Sky; No Snakes on My Trail!

This title describes my fave run. This past Sunday I took off for my run with no real goal and I don't like that. It was a beautiful day and I knew that I needed to run at least 10. I strapped on my water and was heading out the door when Pete said "have fun and just do what feels good." Hmmm... Have fun? It is a sick kind of fun!

I think I have said that I have a love/hate realtionship with my path. The Germans have fabulous groomed trails and paved pathways all over, so finding a place to run is easy. I don't have to fight the traffic; I don't have to think; just run. As great as that is, it can get very boring considering the little town that I live in. My path goes two ways. To the left is paved bike path, open fields, mostly downhill and relatively flat until I come home. To the right are big hills and more trails and forest. Both are great, but by now, I know every stick on the path.

Now, my family seems to think that I have some wierd propensity for animal incounters or more specifically, snake encounters. They are harmless grass snakes (nothing like E puts up with); however, if you are zoning out, they can scare the shit out of you. Sometimes they are moving right next to my path in the grass, sortof unseen until I see the grass move. Other times, they are stretched out across my path sunning. Last year, Pete asked me how one of my long run went and I told him that it went like this:

run, run, run, gasp with silent scream and big leap, run, run, run, gasp with silent scream and big leap... This happen 9 times! Yes, 9 snakes. No, it didn't take any time off of my run although it took forever after each encounter to get my heart rate back to normal.

So, back to my fave run. This past Sunday I ran to the left down the bike path and out 5 miles. I felt great at the end of 10 which had me back at the house, so I decided to slow down and keep going to the right and up the hills into the forest. I ran for 16 miles in absolutely beautiful weather and not one snake on my path! Yeah! It's the little things, you know.