Iβve been hounding my husband to join me on a trail run for a while now, given he was a cross country runner in his youth. Finally today he caved and joined me. His fitness has fallen flat this year with not teaching Phys. Ed. for the first time in over 20 years and taking on a second part time job in the evenings/weekends. I promised a short 3k run where we would run the horseshoe I ran last week but instead of doing it as an out and back, we would stop at the road and walk the gravel road back to the truck (about a km or so cool down walk). The hill at the start was killer as expected but he gave me a nice little backside boost at the steepest part and he pointed out a fox den in the side of the hill Iβve never noticed before. He also noticed I came within a few inches of stepping on a large bull snake that was sunning itself beside the path as we ran the final stretch through the meadow. It lurched and scurried off after I ran by but I was able to come back and see him before he was gone π³. It was a good 3 feet long and quite thick. I wonder how many other close calls Iβve had without knowing?
Hubby did awesome on the run but has expressed some concerns about his ability to walk tomorrow....but then in the next sentence commented how much he does enjoy the runnerβs high. Iβm pretty sure Iβll be able to convince him to come out again, keeping the runs shorter to start with. Iβve been reading Born to run and we watched a short video on the Tarahumara tribe this morning before heading out so he was watching my foot fall figuring it would be hard to heel strike on this terrain and he was correct. I seem to land more midfoot while running the trails. He apparently was also watching more than the scenery and my footfall as he followed me on the trails π but if thatβs what it takes to get him to come with me, stare away honey, stare away...just donβt trip because youβre not watching the trail π