With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

Lovely run on the P-town loop.  Nice drivers on the road and great weather. 
 

Early dark and foggy run.  I recharged the batteries on my headlamp so it was bright to let the cars know I was coming.  It worked pretty well.  It was cool enough to wear short sleeves instead of a tank.  I didn't watch the pace on my watch, just ran what felt good.  I was thrilled to see that my pace was faster than it's been all summer.  I think it helped that I was only carring one waterbottle on my belt and left the 2 hand bottles at home.  I've been needing that much fluid on long runs (9+ miles) and it felt good to leave them at home today.  Beautiful views when the sun came up and I could see the different layers of fog over the fields. Soybeans, corn, and cotton. 

I did hear the chupakabra in the ditch along the cornfield today.  It's been a while since he came to say hello in his mysterious ways.

Early swamp loop.  Nice and dar, but the constellations were bright in the sky.  Fog on the ground, but not up high.  Cars weren't as polite today as they were yesterday or Monday.  Maybe everyone felt as tired as I did.

When I was out on the longest stretch between houses, with one house 1/2 a mile behind me and the next house 1/2 a mile in front of me, I found myself terrified of whatever was making that noise in the trees at the edge of the filed.  I tossed around some idea- first coyotes came to mind, but I didn't think they were pack animals, and there was certainly more than 1 thing out there howling/screeching.  So then I thought it could be an eastern wolf, which is a wolf that has coyote bred with it, but I know what a wolf sounds like and this wasn't any wolf.  The only other reasonable explaination is chupakabra.  I guess his little hello yesterday wasn't making enough of an impression.  I was seriously afraid that whatever it was would be coming across the filed after me at any moment.  I could feel my heart racing and kept looking over my shoulder hoping (and not hoping) that I'd catch a reflection of my headlamp in their eyes so I'd have something to aim at.  Once I got to the church down the street, I knew I would be okay since it's common knowledge that chupakabras are not allowed on holy ground.

The rest of the run seemed rather uneventful after that little episode of "Who's being crazy inside my head now?"

Running early again.  Just before the turn around point, some dogs came out toward the road from a tall corn field.  I could hear them barking the whole time, so I knew they were far enough away that I'd have time to get past their "yard."  Until I realized it was time to turn around.  They'd just headed back to toward the house when I had to run past their property again.  I was a little worried that I couldn't see or hear them anymore, so I ran fast.  It was nice though, because it helped me pick up the pace and I had some very nice paces on my last 2 miles.  I was really running, not just doing my usual jog.

Slept in later than I should have, but managed to get to the trail while it was still nice outside.  The trees provided shade almost the entire time, and there was an occasional cool breeze that felt fabulous.

Just after starting out, there were 2 girls headed back to the parking lot.  I didn't see anyone again until mile 11.  Seriously.  No one else out on the trail.  It was a beautiful day out- where was everyone?  I guess most of the serious runners were already done with their run for the day and were home showering by then.  Between mile 4.5 and 5.5, I almost ran into this little guy.  I am used to seeing dead snakes, but live ones make me a little uneasy.  I should have kept running,  but I wanted proof. 

As I was putting my ipod away, I hear a noise and he's taken off in a flash.  Luckily he took off away from me and not toward me.  That's a long way to run back to the car with a mess in your shorts.

I found the end of the trail at mile 5.5.  Ran out to the road and turned around.  Here's the trail head at the far end (I started in the middle).

It's mostly packed dirt.  Some sandy spots, some rocky spots, and some ravines from water runoff - especially on the hills.  I headed back to the car and stopped for some gu on the boardwalk that runs through a swampy spot next to a creek.

Other than being the only one out on the far end of the trail today and having to find all the spider webs myself, it was beautiful.

I stopped at the car after seeing the 2nd set of people.  I re-filled my water, gatorade, and had a couple bites of my pb&j before heading the other direction on the trail. 

I went out 1 miles shy of the other trail head and turned around.  I saw one man with his dog on that side of the trail.  Still can't figure out why no one was enjoying the day on the trail.  It'll be closed in 2 weeks for hunting season (till January), so this will probably be my last time on the trail for the year.  A guy ran on it 2 days before it opened a couple years ago and was shot & killed by hunters (on accident).  I ran past the memorial that was set up for him.  Such a shame.  But lesson learned - stay off the trail during hunting season.

After the run, I had some shopping I needed to do on base, so I tried changing in the back of my car.  My muscles starting cramping up every time I tried to move.  I was certain I would go into total body charile horse and be stuck like that half way undressed until someone came to rescue me the next day.  Grateful I won that battle :-)