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I wasn't sure what to title this post because so many things happened today that I couldn't figure out what would fit best. "18 miles and a funeral" or something like that would probably have fit the best. Anyway, it was quite a day, and here on the other side of it I can't quite believe it was all in the same day....I'm sure everybody's had those kind, and for sure this was one.

It started at 5:15 a.m. when I woke up spontaneously AGAIN because of these spotlights our new "neighbors" (an assisted living undergoing renovations) decided to turn on that flooded our bedroom. I thought it was just a really, really bright moon until 5:15 when I opened the blinds and was, um, blinded by the halogens. Thanks be to all that's holy, we asked them to turn them off, so peaceful sleep tonight awaits! I hope!

I got up and ready for RP to pick me up, and we went to our usual starting point. We both were wearing headlamps (thank you, inlaws!) and started out down the trail, which had flooded a few days earlier but was supposed to be okay by then. Well, we made it five minutes before encountering flooding. So we turned back and went down the OTHER fork of the trail, which, thankfully, was not flooded.

A few minutes into our run on the non-flooded side, we saw something moving up ahead in the dark. Very dark. Maybe a deer? No, it's a human being, wearing black clothes, moving in and out of the trees. I hear RP's heart rate monitor start to beep and I was feeling the same way. We try to "spot" him with our lights and when we come up on him (dude was walking FAST) he is actually wearing workout gear, appearing to be out for an early morning constitutional, like us. Doesn't explain the weird jumping around, but maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us....

The next encounter was another shadowy being moving around on the trail. This one turned out to be two deer, and we were lucky enough to actually catch the "deer in headlights" look from both of them. Their eyes glowed in the dark and until we figured out what they were, I really thought RP was going to faint. It was kind of eerie, and kind of cool.

Our only other weirdness while we were still in the dark was meeting another pack of runners. Two of them out of five had headlamps, and all had reflective clothing, so it looked a little bit like a flying saucer moving down the trail towards us. Or maybe we were just really freaked out.

FINALLY, finally, it got light outside enough to see outlines of trees, and then to see if a person was coming towards us or an alien, and then we could actually make out our surroundings well with the sunrise. This didn't help, however, when after a much-needed Burger King bathroom run for RP (our car, where we pit stop, is by a BK), we started on to uncharted territory where they had extended the trail, presumably by four miles (what all the publications said). Well, we got to 1.5 and it ended with a mountain bike trail off into the distance. So we looped, then we went back on the other side, and did some of the hardest-core running I've ever done for that mostly awful last 3.

But we made it! 18 miles without any, let's say, MAJOR mishaps! I will never again choose to go out that early unless I absolutely had to, and this morning, I absolutely had to, because we were attending the funeral of a friend at 11 a.m. The rest of the day was the funeral, reception, wake at the house, and then taking their kids for a couple hours so they could come just be kids. They were, but they were crazy kids, and mine being even crazier didn't help much!

I'm tired. I'm tired in my bones. But I know that today, overall, was a good, helpful day, and I can fall into my non-spotlighted bed and know that in several ways I showed up and did my best. What more can you ask for, really?