Night and Day

The IRS meeting was Wednesday night this week.  It was a wacky Wednesday at that (sorry, Dr. Seuss, I'm not stealing your title; it was really a wacky night).  It all started like a typical late-night run, if there is such a thing.  Unstrung and I decided to see if it was still runnable heading towards Triffittville.  The going was certainly slow; lots of prickers and other plant life had been released from their frozen prisons.  Oh, and my headlamp was nearly out of charge.  The nearly full moon helped - some.

Whoosh!  No, not really the right sound.  It was WAH-OOSH!   We'd started a turkey from its treetop roost.  Just when our hearts recovered, our laughter made the sky erupt with large, dark frightened birds.  Did Unstrung become more unstrung?  I don't know; I was too busy listening to me scream.  I think I was flapping my arms as much as the turkeys.

OK, that was far enough along that path.  Besides, the going was a little too slow with all the prickers reaching out to grab us.  It was along this stretch that Xar planned one of those videos that were making the rounds a while ago, "Things Trail Runners Say".  It was just sentences interrupted by ows and oh-shits and the like.  That was how our conversation went till we made it back to the hill across the street. 

Things seemed to get a little back to normal.  The lack of light was less of a slow down where there were less trip hazards.  Then.  Aaaahhhhh!!!!  This time a dove took wing from its sleeping spot.  It went up so close to me I either felt the tip of its wing or the wind from it.  The weird noise they make when they take wing also is a little freaky at night.  Again, I don't know Xar's reaction cause mine was so big. 

When we headed back to the beaver swamp trail, it all seemed so spooky.  We marveled that it could be so.  We'd just run this very stretch not 45 minutes earlier.  Unbelievable.  It was like we were in a horror movie.  Unstrung thought she heard something in the woods.  Then I heard a snort come from them.  I theorized that it was deer.  We decided we couldn't turn back till we reached the beaver swamp.  We couldn't give in to the fear.  Of course, it was fine.  We got back to the house with almost 8 miles covered.  I know there were lots of funny things said about our experience, but...it's been too long since we ran.  I need to start posting right after.

Unstrung unsuspecting

The mood setter (and light giver)

um?  during flight?

Probably some of the turkeys that were so scary the day before

Thursday, I ran pretty much the same route (without trying the Triffittville part - too thorny).  Of course, nothing was scary.  Birds didn't jump out of nowhere.  Heading down the beaver swamp trail, I startled a deer.  I stood watching it run through the woods, tail high, zig-zagging through the trees.  I bet that was who snorted the night before.  The second time down that trail, I startled two deer in that same spot.  Poor guys were probably trying to settle in for the evening.  Coming out of the trail, heading back down the hill, I stopped to watch 6 deer.  They noticed me.  One immediately bounded away, tail high.  Four others took a second, but followed suit.  The last one stood ground for quite some time.  The others waited at the field's edge.  Finally I said something about joining the others and (s)he listened. 

The difference between Wednesday's 8 mile run and Thursday 5 mile run was much more than three miles.