Some days are better than others

Why are some days so hard and other so easy? Distance makes no difference. Monday was a 3 mile run and it was easy. Tuesday was a trail – I’ll tell you about the excitement later – but it was easy. This morning it felt like I didn’t know how to run at all. My legs didn’t work right. Every step felt “jerky.” My breathing was erratic. It was like I had never run before. I don’t understand. Especially at the beginning of the run but somewhere after the first mile it began to change. Thankfully!

I have run complete distances and never found a rhythm, that’s very uncomfortable and no FUN! I run because I enjoy it. Period! I love the way it feels to run and the way it feels to be done. I get lost somewhere when I’m out there, especially at 4:00 am when I have the road to myself. But if things hadn’t smoothed out this morning and stopped heading into the “NO FUN” zone, well, I guess I would have just finished and come home as planned…

Tuesday we were running at Shawnee Mission Park. I am totally sold on the trails. You don’t get to zone out like on pavement but I love being in the woods. We had just started running and I was leading. As I was cruising along, looking at the path before me and then scanning 8 to 10 feet ahead to see what is coming, I looked down and on the trail was a snake! I couldn’t say anything fast enough to let my running friend know what it was – so all that came out was a loud squeaky noise as I passed over the slithery critter. He apparently had time to “move” as she passed over him! It was great! We had to stop to regain composure (after we got a distance from him). I’m not really afraid of snakes. I just wasn’t expecting to see one stretched across the trail. His head was on one side of the trail with his tail off the other. That makes him about 18 to 21 inches long. I learned later that he was a Red Milk Snake – not poisonous in any way. Again, I just didn’t expect him. I hadn’t seen any snakes on any of my runs – the deer, squirrels, possum, skunks – they’ve all been there but no snakes yet! Now I can say I’ve seen one on the trails. Mark that box and go on…