 |
| Oh deer, sorry to block your path. |
1/24/12 A couple days worth of mild temperatures melted all the snow that was left on the ground and, as an added bonus, the temperatures remained above the freezing mark late into Tuesday night. One of my running rules that I live by is when the temperature remains above 30, I run in shorts. My legs warm up quickly, usually within a mile or two, and the only part of my body that still seems to get cold too quickly are my hands. There was no getting cold on this run.
A run that was supposed to be 9 miles, with some hill-sprints mixed in for a workout, turned into 13 miles when Paul and I ran a couple of miles past the road we were supposed to turn on. With the mild temps, and having to make up some mileage I missed resting sore feet, I didn’t mind the extra running at all. In fact, when a couple of deer who were also out for a late-night run came within feet of us around mile 9, I was glad that we missed our turn originally because it gave us the chance to have an amazing wildlife encounter.
Now I’ve seen many deer while running in the dark with my headlamp before. They’re hard to miss when you hear their hooves take off into a run and then see their eyes light up from the headlamps while they look at you, probably wondering why you’re running when nobody is chasing you. But every other time I’ve seen deer in Manchester, Bolton, Vernon or Glastonbury while running; they’ve been 50 to 60 feet away in the woods running along parallel with the roads. This time, they were headed straight at us. Attempting to cross the road we were running on, until they were 10 feet from us, saw our headlamps then quickly turned on a dime to retreat back into the woods.
When my heart slowed down a bit and stopped racing, I thought to myself, “Man, I wish I had that type of turnover and speed in my legs.”
A run that was supposed to be 9 miles, with some hill-sprints mixed in for a workout, turned into 13 miles when Paul and I ran a couple of miles past the road we were supposed to turn on. With the mild temps, and having to make up some mileage I missed resting sore feet, I didn’t mind the extra running at all. In fact, when a couple of deer who were also out for a late-night run came within feet of us around mile 9, I was glad that we missed our turn originally because it gave us the chance to have an amazing wildlife encounter.
Now I’ve seen many deer while running in the dark with my headlamp before. They’re hard to miss when you hear their hooves take off into a run and then see their eyes light up from the headlamps while they look at you, probably wondering why you’re running when nobody is chasing you. But every other time I’ve seen deer in Manchester, Bolton, Vernon or Glastonbury while running; they’ve been 50 to 60 feet away in the woods running along parallel with the roads. This time, they were headed straight at us. Attempting to cross the road we were running on, until they were 10 feet from us, saw our headlamps then quickly turned on a dime to retreat back into the woods.
When my heart slowed down a bit and stopped racing, I thought to myself, “Man, I wish I had that type of turnover and speed in my legs.”
No comments:
Post a Comment