run bitch, run! *

those of you who say you'd only run if someone were chasing you--well then, you would have run last night.

i was on my jolly way around the lake, looking for nessy. it wasn't late, but the days are getting short and it had already been dark for quite a while. about halfway around i began to hear footsteps behind me. no big deal. on the path around the lake there are usually other runners. i wasn't really sure where they would have come from, because when i got on the path there was nobody near me, and at that point the entire route had been along a busy road with a barrier on one side and the lake on the other. they couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere (unless they apparated).

after a few minutes i began getting curious because the sound seemed so close, yet nobody was passing. and also, whenever i cross a crosswalk or if people pass by going the other way, i always check over my shoulder to make sure nobody is coming up from behind. but each time i turned to look behind me (which was probably every 50 yards along this part of the route because there is a string of parking lot entrances), there was nobody there. i could hear the footsteps but could see no source.

running alone in the dark is always something people say smart women should never do. this ghost runner started making me a little bit nervous...

but then, just when i was starting to think about what i would do if anything were to happen, a figure appeared beside me under one of the pinkish-orange streetlights. it was a middle-aged man with a short grey beard, and it seemed that he may have realized that it could be a bit weird or disconcerting that he was trailing me in the shadows like that and finally decided just to pass me. he got about 20 feet ahead of me and then again fell back into the same pace as me. after a few hundred more feet it became clear why he had been so elusive this whole time.

there is a gravel path that encircles the lake at the outside edge along the road. then there is a paved path right on the banks of the lake for wheeled things. in between these two paths there is a lawn area. this man had apparently been doing his best to run on the softer grassy area. he was taking this task very seriously. along the edge of the gravel path where the grass starts there are also lots of trees and bushes and flowering shrubs, etc. in order for him to be on the grass, he was forced to weave in and out around the trunks and branches of all of this greenery. which, of course, slowed him down again, meaning that i, on my smooth and steady gravel trail kept catching up with him. each time he spotted me gaining on him, he would spend a few seconds on the path getting some distance, then start with the weaving again.
after a while i began wondering if we were going to make it all the way back around the lake like this. not that i minded--he was actually quite good company and he was helping me keep a good pace.

then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared again. he spun around a tree trunk and came straight towards me. as he did i saw that he was wearing a shirt from the running club beside the lake. as he passed me he shot me a big smile and told me i had a good pace.
well that sure was a nice and strange surprise...
it made me smile the rest of my run.

(* janet clements gets full credit for the title of this entry.)