I had a 15ish mile long run to do today. And about a zillion time sensitive things to do after my run. Thankfully, I have a great running friend that was willing to start running at the crack of dawn at a trail that's a bit closer to us both so that we could get the run in and get on with our day!
hmmm.... Did anyone else know that there isn't really much light at 6am? And if you start your run at 6am in the woods there is even LESS light due to the trees? So, yeah we learned that today too.... We had talked about starting to train in the dark a little because our race in September starts in the dark, but we did not intend to start that project today. Thankfully, I had my headlamp in my car (unintentional). So off we went with two people and one headlamp on a single track trail. It took us about ten minutes at our blistering snail's pace to realize that the person with the headlamp should be in back, not in front. Yeah, slow learning curve today... But along we went. Good conversation, lots of hills.
About two miles into the first six mile lap, we were happy to find that we no longer needed the headlamp because some light was finally hitting the trails. I was convinced that the second loop would be totally different because were so paranoid and slow with the lack of sunlight for the first loop. Then we saw a turtle on the trail and life was good.
By loop number two, everything got lame. The humidity was 175% I'm sure. Our legs were tired and we were both kind of over it. My running partner had already warned me that she was not interested in doing more than twelve. So, I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that I wanted 15 bad enough to do it alone.
Thankfully, when we finished the 12 I didn't give myself long enough to change my mind and immediately started on my 3 mile loop to finish things off. I actually counted tenths of a mile for about the first mile. Just trying to get through. So, you can imagine... a challenging run had become a bit more difficult. But I just thought, get past the half way mark and then you have to keep going. So that's what I did.
This is where the awkward moment comes in... With one mile left I start hearing voices of some ladies obviously just starting a run. At this point I was excited just to see some people because it would be a nice change. They broke through a clearing and I was CERTAIN that they were my friends. Same color of shirt as my one friend wears all the time, a red visor like my friend wears. Oh yeah! Even better. FRIENDS! So, as they get closer I shout, "I thought I knew those loudmouths!" Guess what? I did not. Not even one of them. In fact, they don't even look familiar to me. Oh crap. As if I wasn't tired and sweaty and miserable enough, now I've made a complete ass of myself and called some strangers names. Fan-freak-ing-tastic. Thankfully, they were the SWEETEST bunch of gals and acted like nothing odd had happened. They joked about snakes on the trail and were on their way!
So I spent the next half a mile laughing at what an idiot I am and marveling at how sweet those gals were for not pointing it out to me. I tell ya, trail runners are a wonderful bunch. They don't flinch when that walk up on you peeing in the woods and they don't flinch when strangers call them loudmouths and act like they are good friends. I do love running on trails. And I do love the people I run into on them.... well mostly.
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