Scary Road

Thursday night I changed my course for my short 5 mile run.  This route begins with a steady climb for 1.5 miles up hill, more residential, & less traffic.   I use this route on my long runs early morning on the weekends. During the daylight, the run is very challenging.  I run on side walks for the most part but there's 2 miles of unpaved, uneven, dirt, & gravel.

It's 6:50 pm by the time I get started.  The dark sky is clear & there's suppose to be a full moon somewhere. There's a slight breeze and temperature is warm for this time of year of 63 degrees.  Starting out, my mind begins to decompress.  I love this part of my run because most of my stresses run off me like sweat.  As I head into my 2nd mile, the road becomes uneven, but well lit by street lamps.  It's not my first time at the rodeo, so my running style changes to more of a lighter landing and higher step due to the gravel & rocks.  As I turn into mile 3, the road is still unpaved, gravely, and no street lamps. It has become scary and is pitch dark! There is an occasional car that passes who's headlights help me gage my next few yards & luckily showed a small bridge I almost ran off!   My ipod pacer music is trying to keep me focus, but can hear a distant yelping sound.  Approximately two months ago, during a morning long run, I saw a funny looking dog, coming down a hill, on the sidewalk, on the opposite side of the street.  As it got closer, I realized that wasn't a dog, it was a coyote!
I kept running and so did the coyote.  On scary road,  I know the yelping sound I hear are the coyotes in the nearby nature reserve. As I round the turn heading into the 4 mile, I see the full moon sitting on the horizon!  What a lazy moon.  The side walks & street lamps are back and I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive!  A flood gate of relief & don't tell my husband about this night swirled around me as I headed home.  There's no way I'll do that again.