Day 16 - I Saw a Coyote

Life's getting a little busier around here - let's not kid ourselves, I still get to sleep by about 9:30 each night so it's not THAT busy.  But, Girls on the Run started this week (our team is awesome!) and that means two nights a week after work I am hoofing it out to co-coach with Sister.  This decreases amount of time available for my training runs.

So I decide to get up this morning, since I'll go to work an hour later than I do on other mornings, and do my 4-mile run.  While NOT training, Husband would have come with me but he's on his own schedule.  Don't think I didn't attempt to make him believe he said he'd get up and run with me, because I did.  It didn't work.

A perfect morning to run.  42 degrees, no wind and no cars because it's 5:30 in the morning!  I put on my reflective gear, strapped on my blinky lights and grabbed the flashlight - ready to run!  I did see one other crazy friend out running but other than that, the roads were mine...or so I thought!

Three of the four roads I run on are not very well-lit in the morning.  As I rounded on to Road Two I came near an open field area between a church and a house.  I saw something out of the corner of my eye so I flashed my light at it.  Is that a dog?  No, it didn't bark and it's just staring at me...I wiggled my light and fortunately it ran away in the other direction.  Was that a fox?

I decided it was a fox at the time and picked up my pace a bit.  With my new fancy watch I discovered that mile 1 (pre-fox) was a 10:00/mile pace...mile 2 (post-fox) was 9:10, mile 3 was 9:05 and mile 4 was 8:53.  Man, I ran fast today! 

Husband was awake enjoying some coffee when I returned.

Me: Could I have seen a fox?
Husband: Yes, we have those around here.
Me: I think I saw one...or maybe a coyote.
Husband (eyes growing wide): How big was it?
(a friend has two dogs, one is quite small, we'll call him J, and the other is a little larger, we'll call her C)
Me: About the size of a dog...maybe like C.
Husband: WAS it a dog?
Me: No, it didn't bark at me and it ran the other way.
Husband: Foxes are more like J, not C.
Me: I think it was a coyote.

Wait, no, he looked more like this...



I should have run faster...

Day 16 - number of vehicles that almost hit me, 0

Day 16 - number of vehicles that I waved to, 0

Day 16 - number of coyotes that almost ate me - 1