Saturday, March 24, 2012

Twelve Mile Stalker

This week I jumped right back into my marathon training (last week was an "easy" week). So today, being a Saturday, was long run day. Let me start by saying this was the best 12 miles I've run in a long time. I still have a bit of the achy knee thing going, but not nearly as bad as it's been in prior weeks. I ran on a road that Mike and I normally bike, but for some reason had forgotten how hilly it was - today's 12 miles included 640 feet of climbing.

But on to the more important part of the run. I firmly believe I was stalked by turkey for the entire 12 miles. Before I elaborate, let me remind those of you who followed my blog way back in 2008 (when it was on Vox - boo, they deleted their whole site and I lost the content from that time) that I have a history with the turkey. Not the eat-you-for-Thanksgiving history, but the holy-crap-you're-mean-and-scary history. Long story short, I found a turkey in my front yard making pretty little turkey sounds (think: velociraptor sounds in "Jurassic Park"). As soon as it saw me, it escalated to hissing, wing dragging and flying. Yup, until then I didn't know they could fly (like onto the roof of my house). I spent the next two years in that house terrified to walk out the front door, convinced they were waiting on the gutter to pounce on me.

Add to that Mike's horrifying story of being chased on his bike by one who proceeded to peck at his calf and I've developed a healthy "respect" for these critters.

Today, one (I'm pretty sure it has to be the same one) followed me, gobbling, for the entire 12 miles. Only, whenever I looked over my shoulder, they weren't there. Keep in mind that I was running in the country - like real country (cow pastures, horses, creeks, etc), so there was plenty of places to hide. Mike tells me that there's hundreds out there this time of year, but I'm pretty convinced it was just one... toying with me the entire time.

Maybe I need to drink more water...

No comments:

Post a Comment