I started my run shortly after 6:00 AM and it was DARK! I was doing okay on the street that leads to the trail head, but once I got to the parking area at the trail head, I heard a "biggish" critter in the brush. That always spooks me a little bit. I started going through the list of critters that would be out and about at night and which ones are most likely to be rummaging around in the woods. And I tell myself, "It's okay. It's probably just a raccoon." That doesn't really help. I kept going.
I got onto the trail and started to try and run a bit when I looked up onto the mountain side. There I saw 2 little glowing things. I blinked my eyes and I rubbed them and looked again. I was really hoping it was just a mirage! But nope! There they were. Two little beady eyes staring me down! CREEPY!!! You know those fake glowing eye ball lights you see at Halloween? It was like those.. only REAL! What kind of creature was behind those eyes??? YIPES!!! I had no idea. It was beyond dark and all I could see were the glow of the beady little eyes! I ran past it, and look behind me. I was really hoping the eyes didn't follow me! Sure enough, I didn't see them again. But the goosebumps on my arms didn't go away for a while!
You know that saying "It's always darkest before the dawn"? Ya, I think I finally understand what that truly means! I had my new head lamp on, and it really didn't do much at all. I could see that there was nothing big and dark on the trail. I could see where the trail ends and the brush began. But other than that, the head lamp did me no good. I could not see the little nuances of the trail. I could not see where it might have had a little hump. I could not see where it dipped. All I could see was flat light reflecting off of the beige sand. This is a trail I run all of the time, and I am happy that I know it the way that I do. However, with that said, I still had the hardest time seeing today. It was worse today than it has ever been. I really had to slow down through parts of the trail because I just could not see.
Those pictures were taken about 30 minutes into my run and the sun was starting to come up a little tiny bit. When I started, you couldn't even see the difference between the night sky and the mountains. But you could see stars!
Finally, the sun came up and I was able to run which made me feel TONS better! I also came across a few more runners which helped. Being out there in the foothills in the dark and alone with creepy beady eyes staring you down does not help the self-confidence one little bit! *laugh* I just keep telling myself that running in the dark is good training for the Frenzy when I will be starting in the dark. After the frenzy, I am done with running in the dark..just sayin'!
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