Curse of the Llama

Saturday, the Squirrel and I had 22 miles on the books.  We decided to start at 7:30 to get it done with some time left for the rest of the day.  Mindy and I both confessed to having no game plan for the day's miles.  We finally decided on heading out the Connector and adjusting the plan based on the conditions.  While we prepped in the parking lot, we were greeted by Pathfinder.  He was there with his son and another (perhaps a son-in-law?).   I forgot what he said he was aiming for, but they had decided on the east side.  We wished each other a good run and went our separate ways.

We were immediately greeted with shear ice.  We hypothesized that once we got past the most traveled trails, there would be less ice.  Nice theory.  By the time we reached the power lines, we knew we had to switch to roads; we'd be out there all day at that pace.  Luckily we'd managed to stay upright.  We were tricked into thinking we might be able to stay on the trail by a runnable stretch of power line.  The next stretch reinforced our earlier decision and we bailed onto W. Pownal Rd.  We ran up Leighton, to Elmwood, and back to the park.  We changed out of screw shoes and headed back out for the Animal Loop.  It's a great non-trail option since it has lots of hills and dirt roads.

When we reached the first of the loop's namesake, the dark llama was right by the fence.  He jumped up in protest, laid back his ears, and made it clear he was unhappy with our presence.  He turned his rump to us and farted in our general direction.  He ran over to his llama (I assume) girlfriend.  After they, um, greeted each other, he ran, bucking, back to us.  He went back and forth between laying his ears back at us angrily and looking at us curiously.

During all his antics, I tried to get his picture (the first time I pulled my camera out - I didn't want to add too much time to this long run).  Shit!  I'd forgotten to put the memory card back in.  The memory on the camera was full.  Rats.  At least Mindy and I were immensely entertained by his attitude.

We managed to pass the highland coos a second time without stopping to visit.  We realized we would need to add six miles after the Animal Loop if we headed right back to the park.  Instead, we crossed Elmwood, staying on Lawrence. 

The mileage we tacked on didn't quite get us there.  We needed to run past the park entrance and tack on another mile.  Which we did.  We never run out of things to analyze, discover, laugh about or enjoy, even on these long, hard runs.  OK, doesn't sound like much of a curse so far.  More will come on Sunday.