I'm such a dork!

So on the agenda today was 1 loop at Wyco Park, a fun 10 miles with lots of hills. I get out to the park, start on my way and then had to turn around and go back to the car 'cause I forgot my gloves, ... start off again... and forgot my phone, and due to everyone harassing me about not running with a phone I promised to start doing it.. so I go back for that... start off again and went into paranoid mode that I forgot to lock the car, so I go back a third time. Ugh, probably should have called it a day at that point, but no, I'm determined to get my 10 miles in today. Off I go finally and it's muddy but I expected it that, and this is the first time I've run this trail with NO snow on the ground anywhere. The whole no snow thing made the trail look really different, which meant my little pea brain got confused and I promptly got lost.. well not really got lost per say, just off the trail a bit so I had to do some backtracking. Then it started getting warm so I started shedding layers. I'm having a really hard time dressing for these 20- 40 degree days, I always end up either freezing or broiling. So now I have a shirt, a jacket and my fanny pack around my waist.... I really fucking hate things tied around my waist... I tolerate the fanny pack only because my hand held bottle bugs me more. So now I'm grumpy and sweaty.

Usually I don't see anyone out on these trails except for other Trail Nerds, but today there was 2 guys standing just off the trail with shovels, dressed in blaze orange jackets, I say hi as I pass them, and they say nothing.. so now I'm sweaty, grumpy and kinda freaked out too. They have shovels! They could bury me in the woods and no one would ever find me! Ohmygosh! So I ran a bit faster and kept looking over my shoulder waiting for one of them to come after me. At about this point you leave the main bridle trail and head off into the "Triangle" which is about a mile of back and forthing switch back stuff in the trees... a lot of fun to run and I figured any pursuers would end up lost so I was safe. I slid at one point and totally landed on my ass in a mud puddle, so now I'm sweaty, grumpy, freaked and muddy, and I'm not even 1/2 done. Turn around and call it a day? Never! Keep running /sliding. Then I get to a big ass mud bog that promptly sucks my right shoe off. ARGH! Fish around in the mud, get it and kinda hop to the side of the trail and figure my ass is already muddy might as well just sit in the mud and get the shoe back on. Made sure both laces were very tight before setting off again.
Finally get to the backside of the course and slip and fall on my face while going up a steep hill..OK, so I caught myself before I could faceplant but now my hands are covered in mud.. wipe them on my tights and keep running.. I just want done with this damn run.

Got to Festers Wander and had a very bittersweet moment. Festers Wander is named after Bad Bens dog Fester, who is responsible for designing the course, and unfortunately Fester died this past weekend, so of course I was thinking of him while running his "wander". There was tons of dog paw prints out there in the mud, which made me think that Fester was still running his course and he brought along some pals from the Rainbow Bridge to run with him. So now I'm sweaty, grumpy, muddy, and sad.

I had time to fall one more time and by this point I'm sure I look like the abominable mud monster, and I'm real close to crying. In my mind I have regressed back to high school and I'm a fat, dorky, ugly nerd and everyone is pointing and laughing at me. It's amazing the tricks your mind can play on you in the woods. I slog to the end of the run and call my husband to tell him about my horrible run and he just laughs and laughs. And now a few hours later, I guess it is kinda funny, but It might be awhile before I run at Wyco again.