Run

August 3, 2024

I don’t know what to say about this run except that I didn’t enjoy it, I had more spiders on me than I prefer, everything was horribly overgrown, I got very sick of plants touching me, and it was unscenic and very buggy.

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I found myself annoyed that I was not instead mountain biking with my group up at Yudicky and then spending the rest of the weekend lounging with M. Or spending the weekend at 24HoGG. Hell, taking care of some overdue yardwork at my house. Basically, anything but this obligatory long run.

I was mad at myself for signing up for a fall 100 instead of, as I had sworn I would last year, having a chill summer and fall with no serious training plan and a lot more time on my mountain bike.

Here is where it gets ironic, if irony is a good swift kick in the teeth just after you turn your attitude around: I started feeling good about this run, happy to get to know this section of the trail, confident in my abilities, wryly amused that I had gotten so turned around in this dreadful clearcut area that I found myself going the wrong way on the trail, meaning I had to go back through the awful clearcut, and it would be that much longer until I got back to my car.

Of course that’s when I stumbled in a weird way—basically a stick came up and caught my shoe as my leg was moving forward going downhill, so it kind of forced my leg to twist and shock of electric pain went down the back of my leg.

Running wasn’t really an option after that. I’m pretty sure my SI joint is about as badly torqued/rotated as it has ever been. 

I hitchhiked back to my car, getting picked up first by an older woman whose car was full of used ashtrays and counterculture and magic, with a Pomeranian in the backseat. She was going straight and I needed to turn so she dropped me off.

I limped down the road and then another car stopped, a couple. The woman was a runner and recognized that I must be an injured runner. I sat in the back with—that’s right, another Pomeranian!—on my lap.

Anyway, I guess the run really ended at mile 16 because after that I was just limping until I got picked up.