This week was my week to get back at it! I could tell my chest was still a little tight so some full out running was not going to happen (until Thursday). Instead, I dug out my fitness tracker from ifit and gave myself some new goals to work towards. I would try to get 10,000 steps in each day. I know a lot of you do this every day, but boy it can be a challenge, especially if you are not running(or walking) at least 3 miles a day.
My sister kept me company on a 5 mile walk/run (but mostly walk) on Monday, and then again for 3.6 miles on Tuesday. Wednesday and Friday I walked and Thursday I ran. It was a challenge but I did get 10,000 steps in each day.
Okay, now back to the Thursday's 3 mile run on the Island. This time of year the Island Park is just swarming with visitors. Soccer is in full gear and there are always games and practices going on in the fields and kids playing at the playground. The inner paths are filled withe walkers, runners, people with dogs, kids with bikes, etc. Us serious runners, often deviate from the inner path out to the North and South trails which are in the woods. They are clearly marked as trails and people have been using them for years. Just to be clear, there is no mistaking these are walking/running paths.
Well, I did my first mile on the inner trail (I got my pace down to a 9:12 which I thought was pretty good for me for my first run in a while) and then decided to run the South trail in the woods. The south trail runs along the water, comes to a point, and then I loop and run up the opposite side of the island. As I was running I could see that some Spring clean up had happened. Trees were trimmed, a lot of brush was cleared out, and some trees were cut down leaving just stumps for now.
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| Not the exact spot but a picture from the Island Trail. |
As I got half way down the other side of the island, I could see further ahead that something was blocking the path. I couldn't quite tell what it was. Maybe a stump? As I got closer I saw a turqoise color and what looked like a plumbers butt. Had someone fallen? Was someone hurt? OMG was someone being attacked??
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| This is NOT a picture from this day, but this is almost exactly where the "incident" occurred and I wanted you to see the path I was talking about. |
And then I saw what was happening. Eeek! It never occurred to me to give them privacy and turn myself around. All I kept thinking in that short amount of time was how I would get around them as they were clearly RIGHT ON the path (and this is a dirt path at this point). The most discreet thing for me to do would be to run below them, but that only gave me a narrow path that is banked into the river and at this point I was running pretty fast and didn't want to take a chance of slipping. So I ended up running above them. Thank goodness I had my sunglasses on cus I looked directly down and just kept running. The man heard my feet shuffling when I ran passed and he quickly got up and I heard them both start to giggle.
I got to the end of the wooded area and turned back around to run the loop in the opposite direction. I was not deviating my running plan because of these two. As I ran by them again, they had put themselves together and were standing upright. As I ran by I mentioned to them that this would be my last loop running by and just smiled. They giggled and said I was just fine. Darn right I was fine! What do they think they are doing???? I am not condoning what they were doing but geeze, they could have at least took it off the path into the grass area. There is a grassy lawn area right above the path that is still secluded with tress and no one ever walks up there, that could have been their spot! For that matter, there are many other "hidden" spots around the island they could have found to be alone.
Clearly these people where not locals or they would have known how busy these paths get (even the wooded ones). My case in point, shortly after I passed the couple for the second time, I passed another runner coming in that direction.
So, that's my best running story for the week. Heck, it might be my best running story all season. We will see!
Anyone have a story quite like this to share? -M
We are linking up with Holly and Tricia for their Weekly Wrap!