Trails and Tribulations

Eventful run #1: Run and done!!

A few weeks ago I ran (no pun intended) into a woman at the local running store who told me about an intriguing group: The Dirty Girls Running Club. They meet every Thursday at 6 p.m. and run through the trails at a nearby park. I've always wanted to run those trails but being directionally challenged I had horrid images of myself wandering off path and withering Chris McCandless-like in the Baltimore wilderness. Hence, I liked the idea of following a group who knew where they were going.

I'm also kind of shy though so I was not digging the idea of being the only newbie running with these women. Running Neighbor to the rescue!! Not to be confused with Runner Neighbor or Running Partner, who both laughed at my proposal and responded with "Yeah, have fun with that."

I picked RN up at 5:40 and we got to the running store ten minutes later. The proprietor greeted us with the news that we had just missed the group and they had left early because they were doing 20 miles tonight. To which I responded "No way!" and he said "Yup." Then, after a waaaay too long pause, he started laughing and stated "Nah, I'm just kidding. They usually start closer to 6:15 than 6 o'clock." Ha, running humor. Not really funny unless you're devout enough to actually own a running store.

Long story short, the Dirty Girls never showed and Mr. Comedian proprietor ended up drawing a rustic, at best, map of the area and sent us on our way. Like Lewis and Clark we set out to find the trails and log a 6-mile run that ended back at the car rather than the middle of nowhere.

We did pretty well with RN as the navigator. For a trail run that began its first full mile on the shoulder of a crazy busy road at rush hour, it really was kind of cool. There were a few low points, like when I jumped at a black snake and almost pushed RN into said rush hour traffic and when RN got the shakes so bad we had to take a break and I was silently cursing myself for not bringing a cell phone because I didn't know if I had it in me to fireman-carry her back out to the road. Other than that, it was beautiful, cool, scenic, not too rooty, and the only dangerous wildlife we encountered was a small French Bulldog that yapped at our heels for a tenth of a mile or so. Aaaaah, yuppie wilderness.

Technically we only managed 5.17 miles, but that 5.17 ended right back at my minivan and we were none the worse for wear.


Today's Miles: 5
Total Miles: 161