You Just Never Know

Didn't get up yesterday morning to run, so I headed out around 6:15 pm once Ryan got home for a short 3-miler. Ran the short Highland Green loop backwards, and as I was cresting the hill near the turn to the powerlines, a guy on an ATV crossed the street. At the edge of the sidewalk, he stopped and sat and looked down the road at me. As I got closer, he slowly drove off up the trail, but still looking at me. It was just creepy, and there was no way I was going to turn onto that trail behind him. So, I ran the Connector back instead, staying as far off the edge of the road as I could. Ugh. This reminded me that I really need to run in the mornings. The troublemakers just aren't up and out at 6:00 am!

Of course, what did I do this morning but ignore the alarm and go back to sleep. Sigh. So, after taking Sam to the doctor for a hurting ear (ear infection #2 of the year), working for a few hours, and then getting a few errands done, I headed out for a run around 2:30 pm. I planned to run the Snowplug loop, but as I neared the Quarry, I could see a few guys at the edge of the quarry with two cars at the "trailhead," one of them with a bunch of beer cans on the back of the truck bed. I dislike that I sometimes feel the need to alter my runs because of other people, but I also don't like heading into a situation that might cause trouble when it can be avoided. So I sighed, turned around and took the road to the cart path to the Heath. As I was heading away from the Quarry, a guy was running towards me. We said hi and I had a fleeting idea to ask him if he was running by the quarry and if so, could I join him. Then I realized I was totally being biased, and asking a random runner to run with him wasn't much better than running by those three guys at the quarry. So off I continued on my alternate route.

As I was headed down to Barnes Leap, I saw the runner guy again. We said hello, and he asked me if there was a bridge across the river. I stopped and explained that well, there used to be, but no longer, and I had heard you could cross the river when it was low and get up to the old road and get in some good running on it, but had never done so myself. He looked at me and said, "Are you Danielle?" Ha. It was Matt Lunt. He said, "Actually, I was trying to find the bridge Ryan had been talking about in one of his posts." Ah, he was looking for the new bridge that crossed the stream on the way out to Head of Tides. I explained that the bridge was at the opposite end of the trail system, but if he wanted to follow me, I could get him most of the way there. It was fun to have company as we ran along the river, and soon enough we were at the field, where I sent him on my way, and continued on back up to the dirt road and home. Got in a nice 6 miles in 57:42. Meant to run slower, but somehow being in the lead along the river when I knew a fast guy was following me made me pick up the pace :)