13.1 miles, and not a coyote in sight

So, remember way back when, when I resolved to do a few things this year?  I checked one off the list yesterday by running the Long Beach Half Marathon… and achieved a new PR for myself too!  Shaved five minutes off of my time from last year’s Rock N Roll Half in STL.

Yippee!!!

(Love the little hands reaching up!)

My father-in-law spent the weekend visiting here, so he joined the Hubs and the girls to cheer me on from a couple of spots along the run.  Overall it was a very flat route and about two-thirds of it was right along the beach too, so very pretty.

And thankfully, no coyote sightings.  Last weekend was the last of my long training runs, which I’ve been doing early Sunday morning along paved trails in a canyon park a couple miles from our house.  The canyon trails are always busy on the weekend mornings with cyclists, runners and walkers, but given that is densely wooded and a wildlife sanctuary you can’t help but notice the various native animal warnings – mountain lions, rattlesnakes and such.  I had just reached my six-mile mark and was turning around to head back for the last three miles when around the bend pretty far ahead of me I noticed a dog – without a collar.  Oh wait –

THAT’S NOT A DOG.

My first thought (keep in mind I’m not much of an outdoorsy type): kind of looks like a fox.  Aw crap, it’s watching me.  I slowed up and stopped to see if it would run off since I was approaching.  Not so.  It paced the path back and forth, keeping an eye on me.  I turned and started jogging back away from it, looking over my shoulder every few seconds, and all the while beginning to panic and muttering, “f—, f—, f—!”  Next thought: “how the hell do I get out of here to a main road and back to my car?!”  A few minutes later a couple approached walking a large boxer, and they were heading back the way I needed to go, so I gave them a heads-up about the fox – which they correctly said was actually a coyote, and mentioned that coyotes are typically afraid of their dog because of its size.  I asked if I could tag along and run with them for a bit to get past where it was hanging out, which we did, and then so help me I practically sprinted the last leg of my training run back to the comfy confines of my minivan.  Up close but thankfully not too personal with nature that morning.  And thankful that I get a break from my canyon running for awhile, at least until I get the itch to tackle another 13.1 miles.

I hope they want to run with Mama someday…