I wanted to start the story like normal, not jumping straight to the crazy part, but I have to open by telling you that something terrifying happened today. Terrifying!
That part comes a bit later… (But I promise we will get there.)
The beginning of the day was wet and cold. I own one thing to wear cold weather – a sweatshirt that I bought in New Orleans earlier this year. No gloves, no coat, no nothing else. (I live in Los Angeles.)
People had warned me it’d be cold out here. I’m all, “Yeah, I’m covered. I own a sweatshirt.”
As someone who’s happily lived in Boston, Massachusetts (during lovely winters), you’d think I’d remember what actual cold is like. I didn’t. Until I got here.
A cotton sweatshirt is not the thing to wear in Seattle rain. More on that soon, but that was only the tiniest of problems…
When the day began, I posted this status on Facebook:
“Rainy. Cold. TRAIL. Stories of animals people have seen on this trail. Bears, deer, dogs. Oh my.
We are all gonna die here to today. :-p”
Okay, well hardy, har, har… unless you ACTUALLY die there that day. Well, I almost did die. Just wait for it. (And prepare yourself to be terrified, my friends! (Terrified!))
So, we start off on the trail. It’s a trail. If you know me/have read the blog, you know I don’t like trails very much. For the chance to try four half marathons in one weekend, I was willing to go out on a terrain I don’t care for.
Plugging along, small paths. Getting muddy. Hard to let people pass since some paths are very tight.
Even though it can get a wee bit crowded, we’ve spread out in the back, and at this point I’m alone. I just keep following the path until, of course, I get lost. I come out to the road. Huh. Don’t think I’m supposed to be here. I look along the beautiful road. I think “Huh. Maybe I’ll just work my way back around to the front by looping out here. I have my running app. I can watch the miles. This is a tiny race where they won’t really care… No, no, no. I’ll suffer through the path that’s meant for us.
So, I start back. I start going the way I think I should be based on the runners I see in the distance. After a while, some walkers are walking straight toward me. Uh oh. “Are we supposed to be crossing paths like this, or am I going the wrong way?”
“Sorry, you’re going the wrong way.” Uuuuugh. I turn around again to go with them. We make it out to another opening in the road!
They turn around. “Sorry. It was us. We were going the wrong way.”
We are never going to make it out of here!
At this point I sort of take it as a sign. The road is calling to me. The trail is getting dangerous. Okay, well, I’ll just go this way. (Otherwise, I am never ever going to find my way back to the trail.)
This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.