Took my first run today since my 28 miler on Wednesday. I took Thursday and Friday off as rest days. I was really tired and decided to be lazy for a few days. It was glorious!
Today dawned bright and sunny. Beautiful morning for a run.
MFH (My Favorite Husband) was out for the day with our neighbor. Our neighbor has his own trucking business. He hauls asphalt, dirt, etc. for construction and all that kind of a thing. MFH had studied and gotten his CDL learners permit and today was a practice driving day with our neighbor. You have a certain amount of time to get some miles under your belt to earn your real license. So, they were off doing that this morning.
I lolly-gagged around. Dawdled over my breakfast and coffee. Finally decided to go for my run. It was around 9:00 am. Burning daylight.
Off I went. I only had to do 7 miles this morning. Nice!
As you all know, we live in the country in Mississippi. Seeing as I do most of my training on country roads, I have a tendency to run right smack dab down the middle of the road. I really do have a reason for this. I am not trying to pig up the entire stretch of road.
Our roads have quite the crown to them. That makes my knees unhappy. So, if I run towards the middle of the road, I have happier knees. That problem~solved.
The other reason I run down the middle of the road is because I am a great big chicken. See, we have snakes where we live. Sure, there are the non-venomous snakes here but we have our fair share of water moccasins and rattle snakes. They like to sun themselves on the shoulder of the roads. THAT is why I really run down the middle of the road. I do NOT like snake encounters.
So, this past week, if you recall from Wednesdays blog, they were picking up tornado damage debris from the edges of the road. We had received a boat load of rain this week. That meant the ditches were full of water and covered up by tornado debris. Perfect hiding places for snakes.
The guys working on picking up the debris, in my opinion, deserve a gold medal for walking into that stuff and making nice neat piles for the trucks to pick up and haul away. There is no way you would get me to do that! Walk into snake infested ditches!?! Nope. Not this gal!
Finally, we move onto this morning. I ran my seven. On my way out, I was trucking along the middle of the road when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. I stopped (dumb, I know) and looked. It was white. Ewwww!!! It was a snake skeleton! Nasty. I immediately wanted a pic but did not want to stop my run. I decided to snap a pic on my way back.
On my way back, I was keeping an eye out for that skeleton. Instead, I ran into the guys. They were STILL picking up tornado debris! (Some of our neighbors really got slammed). I thought, “Oh, no. They parked their truck on top of my skeleton. Rats.” They guys waved at me, I waved back and kept on running. I knew I should have taken the pic when I had the chance.
Running along, kicking myself for a missed photo opp, there, right at my feet was the skeleton! I had not missed it after all!
I stopped and inspected it. It had been a BIG snake! Maybe 4-4.5 ft long. The head and about another 12″ of the snake body were close to a foot away from the rest of the skeleton. The tornado guys must have met the poor snake. They must have had a shovel or a hoe or something because they have taken the head off of that thing! Poor snake. I think.
