Cheryl’s 18 Mile Rabbit Run!

  So after a long week of training for College Board,  Cheryl and I went out for her long run today.   18 miles!    Remember last time?   18 miles was the Devil!  

Well,   things went differently today…thankfully!    We headed out in the early morning, because the heat was predicted to be up in the 70’s by the afternoon.   We fueled and hydrated up in addition to bringing ice water and honey waffles for the fueling up during the run.  It was cool and rather pleasant this early in the morning.  

  When we arrived,  ( around 6:00 am)   the mist was still hovering around the low areas and  the sun was just dipping above the horizon.   We headed down the trail and noticed a number of rabbits.    

I say rabbits in general.  Specifically,  we would see one or two at a time all along the trail. At one point, we could see and identify 4!)  It was a pleasant distraction allowing us to focus on the wildlife during the run.   Pretty much anything is better than actually focusing on how your body feels during a long run.  

I stopped counting after about 16 rabbits.   ( There were many, many more!  Probably over 40 during the entire run!)  Some were friendly, allowing us to get fairly close.   Others ran down the trail ahead of us only to be kicked up again as we got closer.    

It was not just rabbits!   We also saw pheasants, squirrels, chipmunks and best of all….A fox!!

The fox, at first Cheryl thought it was a deer, but as we got closer, we realized it was not as large….although it was a pretty good sized fox for this area . 

He ran down the trail….and then jumped back onto the trail about 400 yards further down.   In the end,   we “chased” him about a full mile…..as he seemed to think he could only run in the trail and not anywhere off of it. 

You would imagine him chasing after the abundant rabbits, but apparently, he has dug up a groundhog ( wood chuck) and had eaten most of it.   I did not even think a fox could tackle a groundhog!   To be fair, the groundhog was pretty small.    I’m guessing a baby, judging from the remains.    We did not mean to chase the fox from his hard earned meal, but things just worked out that way….I guess the remaining half is still there for him to come back to if he gets hungry again.

Anyway,  Cheryl completed the run…the pace was slower, but the overall run ended up being about 20 minutes less.  Not too bad….and most importantly, there were no melt downs or injuries….So in my book, that is a plus!

As for the rest of the day, time to relax.   I am scoring for Pearson at the moment, but I will probably only score for a few more hours before Cheryl and I will retire for the evening.   With College Board now in session, there is less pressure to do as much home scoring as humanly possible.   Even thought, I must say,  Math is far easier to score than the writing project.   Then again,   the current prompt is tricky.