Hit the Trail...

No really. I literally hit the trail today. 

Today was one of those days where I didn't have to be to work until a little after 1 o'clock. I love days like this. I  had planned to hit hot yoga this morning. Last minute I changed my mind when I was invited by an old friend, Nomad Runner, to run a nearby trail. I do love running trails but not by myself, so I could not possibly pass it up.

We met at the beginning of the trail, which is really a mountain bike trail, tagged "Difficult Trail". I had no idea how far it would be but I was ready to run. Plus I had no idea how fast Nomad Runner would be. He used to be much faster than me, but that was a few years ago. He didn't outrun me this time around.  The trail was nice, soft, and a little sandy but not bad. We twisted and winded and turned and climbed. There were no steep, long inclines but many little ups and downs. It was fun and I enjoyed hearing his advice for me, not to mention adult conversation is rare these days....

I was getting cocky, especially when Nomad Runner tripped and nearly fell....he saved it though, inches from the ground. About three miles in I started tripping up over all the roots and stumps in the trail. When I get tired my feet don't come up off the ground as far as they need to. That really makes things difficult.

We ran along and suddenly Nomad Runner said something and all I could really make out was "Mumble...blah blah...Cool, look, skunk....blah blah SEE!! THERE!!" Ummmmm "NO! I don't see! Not cool! STOP RUNNING!!!!" The last thing I needed was to be sprayed by a stupid skunk! A skunk's spray can go pretty far and with the wind we wouldn't stand a chance. I'd have to call in skunk to work for the next week! So we stopped and he pointed out the big, fat, dark skunk-looking creature just as ran behind a tree. I watched for a second and saw it scurry up the tree. What?! Since when do skunks climb trees? We debated for what seemed like five minutes but it was probably only 20 seconds since the furball was climbing the tree at warp speed, terrified of us...then we caught a better look at it, then there were two--two of the biggest, fattest, darkest squirrels I have ever seen. But definitely not tree-climbing skunks. Ahhhh.......rest....

And we continued on our way.

Sure enough about 4.5 miles in I bit it. I can't catch myself and I can't fall gracefully. I've learned to just let it happen...Although I did try to prevent myself form landing face-first and ended up landing on my backside-somehow. There I was, sitting on the trail...ahhh.....rest. 

All I can do really is laugh. I've had some really ridiculous falls in my running career: The one in the middle of an intersection in front of a car full of college boys, yeah that was awesome, pushing LB in a running stroller and causing it to fall backwards as I hit the sidewalk, three times in the first mile on a trail run with J-Ninja (seriously, I can't make this stuff up), then most recently the near-death experience while running in the dark and falling into the biggest whole I have every seen (can you say man-eating sink hole?) and nearly getting hit by a motorcycle...and now this. Today pales in comparison though actually. I have one tiny scrapey scratch on my side-butt. I think I'll live....

Yeah I have no idea....