My training plan called for 8 miles this morning.

I have been avoiding hills lately, primarily because with this Holiday Running Streak, I’m being as nice to myself as I possibly can.  That, and because I am basically lazy!  HA!

Anyway, I decided that today I would run hills.  Goodie?

It is still pretty chilly in Mississippi so I bundled up again in absolutely everything I own for running in cooler weather.  One of those items is an ear muffy kind of a thing.  It is toasty warm and I really like it.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that with the wind, it plays tricks on my ears.  I keep thinking that I hear someone behind me.

At first, I would turn around at the drop of a hat to see who was back there…that was until I finally clued into the fact that the ear muffy thing was causing me to hear that.  Now, I just ignore anything I hear behind me.  Nothing is ever back there.

So, I was on my way back towards the house this morning.  I had run 6 of my 8 miles when, sure enough, I heard someone behind me.  I didn’t give it a second thought.  I just kept on running.

Now, when I am out there running, I day dream.  I solve all the major world problems.  I pretend I am in the final miles of a race and push myself…all sorts of stuff…anything it takes to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Today wasn’t any different.

All of a sudden, I realized that there really was someone behind me!  They had gotten pretty close, too!

I whirled around.

It was a COW!!!

Yup, a big, brown cow.

This was something different.  I have never had a cow as a running buddy before.

So, what did I do?

I looked at the cow and said, “Hi, cow.”

Apparently that was all that was needed because the cow then turned around and went the other way.

Weird.

Country living.  Gotta love it!