Early Sunday Long Run

I run 11.5 really tough miles yesterday. I was pretty beat up, so I thought I would go to Fayettville Sunday afternoon and run 16 real easy miles, but Saturday evening my wife asked if I could get up early Sunday to get my run in so we could have the afternoon together.

I really didn't want to get up that early, but I have been training a lot the last year or so and I do like spending time with her, so I thought, what the heck.

I started getting my stuff ready Sat. evening. That is when I got to figuring. To be able to make it to Sunday school and church, I was going to have to hit the trail about 5 am. Normally in this situation I might have tried to make it back in time for church, but not Sunday school, but my buddy Jeff was teaching this morning and I really wanted to be there.

Since time was going to be tight, I knew that I would have to run in the woods behind the house on all the old gas line, jeep roads and trails. As many of you know, I am a little afraid of the dark and I have actually been running back there quite a bit lately. I have been seeing a lot of bear sign and it is very isolated. I was getting a real bad filling about running in the dark by myself.

I was thinking about all this while I was trying to get to sleep. Well morning came. It had been raining most of the night and was still drizzling a little as I ate and got ready. I was still having real bad fillings about this, but decided to suck it up and go anyway.

I put on my headlamp, grabbed my flashlight and took off. I hadn't gone a quarter mile when my light caught something on the gravel road leading to the trails. I froze, then I realized it was a clump of grass. ha ha. I said out load "man this is going to be a long morning". I went another half a mile or so and hit the first trail section and promptly tripped over a stick and fell down. Well this isn't going real well, so far. No harm done so I continue. I had gone about another half mile or so and hit the first jeep trail. I came to the first giant mud hole and slipped and fell right in. All I could do was laugh. I was sitting waist deep in the most stagnant and putrid water you can imagine.

I knew I had a bad filling about this run..ha ha ha

The sun came up a little later and the rest of the run went without incident. I got 16 miles and had plenty of time to get to church.