Today was a day for a good long run, 9.7 miles according to G-Maps, so after much delay this morning, I finally headed out while it was still cool, about 65 degrees. Read on. I include herein a narrow brush with death, and I don't mean neglecting to bring my cell phone on the run.
I remembered to look for the blue heron that usually rises from a pond on the route, surprising me and flapping away, but he wasn't there today. In his place was a family of ducks that hustled in line out away. No dogs chased me on the way out, the lake was calm, and turkeys called to each other from the trees. A half-dozen rabbits were out and about, and only two people were free enough to gaze out over the water, one guy with a bike and a poor overweight woman who looked as though she were a figure of mud that had been dropped from on high. She was fixing her makeup. I enjoyed the jaunt through the trees, Lake Herman State Park featuring several trail sections that are like half-mile long arbors. But as I came out of one, turned, and headed into another, I hear behind me what appeared to be a tree falling. So I went back, and sure enough, a dead branch, about five inches in diameter and maybe 20 feet long, was lying across the path where I had just run. My reminder of life, the tree branch must have been jostled by my heft. But I dragged the tree branch off the path, tidied up the twigs, and carried on, bouyed by my personal reminder, knowing that branch, or the sound of it at least, was meant for me. Later, I had another kind of luck, as during my cool-down walk, I found a rolled-up, undelivered copy of today's Argus Leader lying in the park with nary a soul around. It too must have been dropped there for me. Two kinds of luck? There are many.
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6 comments:
Sounds like a grand run with much luck along the way. You did, however, give your wife more ammo for requiring your carrying of a cell phone....
I plan to get back on that horse this afternoon with a three miler, provided is it not deathly hot out. Hope my knee is back to 100%!
Yes, when I told her the story that was the first thing she mentioned--cell phone as first aid! But I'm holding out. It's time away from being connected electronically, time for connecting cosmically.
Does it count as being connected if you're not able to hear it ring? Glad you made it through what sounds to me like a bit of a guantlet. Could it be my penchant for the dramatic?
If a tree falls in the forest and lands on top of you causing massive internal bleeding, would the last voice you hear before you slipped out of consciousness be the sound of God saying, "You should have listened to your wife and brought your cell phone"? My penchant for the dramatic is what makes me desire the cell phone or at least a polite note suggesting a route to which I could send a search party.
Shouldn't a good search party, led by the intreped Walter, be able to search me out, following the trail of sweat? Then again, maybe a route note would be good . . .
If I were you I would rather count on a cell phone than Walter for first aid rescue. No offense to the little guy, but he is a little developmentally challenged in the sniffer department.
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