Night Run on Elm Street

Up until this point I have been able to get my runs in at a reasonable hour.  I run during planning time/lunch at school and right after school.  However, on this particular day we had an all-day field trip followed by a staff meeting.  This meant I had to start my 6 mile run just after 5pm.  I knew it was going to get dark during the run so I made sure to have my dog with me. I even put a glowing collar on her.  

But let me tell you, I was not prepared for my imagination.  It started out okay with the sun setting as we looped around our little park heading towards the trail.  The sunset was one of those amazing Broncos sunsets with the brilliant oranges and blues just screaming for a victory (just one, please?!?).  About a mile and half away from the house, we dropped down through what I call Prairie Dog Lane and onto Big Dry Creek Trail.  At this point it was fully dark and really cold.  I wasn't too concerned as I was covered in flecks of beautiful blue lights coming from a house's projections.  This house was beautiful.  It had a large glowing snowman and white lights along the roof with the blue dancing lights projected onto their large evergreen in the yard.  I wanted to stop and take a picture but it was too cold and since I had a mileage assignment rather than a time assignment, I did not want to stop.

So, we continued on and this is when it happened.  My imagination realized my surrounding and went into overdrive.  It was like watching tv in October, one minute you are watching Grey's Anatomy and the next you are watching a commercial for the new horror flick coming out on Halloween.  Every shadow was a killer ready to come get me.  Every sound was the crack of a twig as the killer tried to approach.  My body would be found by a poor dog walker in the morning.  Tonks would be murdered trying to protect me.  My students would be told I went to live on a farm.

So, I started running faster and tried to come up with a defensive plan for the event of my attempted demise.
1. Scratch the attackers face to draw blood.  Crap, I was wearing gloves.
2. Scream for help.  Nope, I saw a total of three people on that entire run.
3. Outrun the attacker.  Ha! Who am I kidding?!?
4. Bite anything I can with all my force.  Hmmm, not likely but this one was possible.

So, at this point I was thinking of all the things I should have with me.
1. Mace. Nope, I'd end up spraying myself.
2. One of those dagger ring things.  Nope, I'd trip and impale myself.
3. A gun.  Seriously?!?
4. Some sort of high pitched alarm.  Maybe.
5. My people. No brainer here.

The tunnels covered in their super awesome new murals were high anxiety patches and the underpass along the creek with its pitch black far corners were an absolute death trap.  I watched for any signs of movement and listened with strained ears for anything.  At one moment I thought my attacker was right behind me...turned out just to be my own labored breathing as I was practically in an all out sprint for the next lighted area.

It was not until I was completely back inside the house that I finally relaxed.  I took this picture of my stretching for Instagram looking happy pretending that I was not scarred for life.    There was no way I was going to post this to Facebook because if my mom found out what I had done, she would have killed me herself.  Hell, I can't believe that I ran on BDC after dark.

It was at this point that I logged into my 3W Races Ambassador private page to tell my people and find advise.  Essentially, run with people or at least stay on well lit streets.   Oh, and stay the hell away from dark trails!   Because yes, those shadows WERE bad guys.  I was just lucky none of them felt like attacking me at that moment.