Bye September. Hello October.

I actually began writing this post half way through the month of September and was going to say how I couldn’t believe we were already half way through the month and lookie here, the month is already over! So I guess I should say instead, I can’t believe September is already over. Someone told me recently, “the more older you get, the faster the time goes, ” and they weren’t kidding. Byyyye September. Helloooo October!

Wow. That was a handful to say to get to the point.

While last month zoomed by, I think I set some fairly realistically attainable goals. At least I thought so.

The first two weeks were great and I met every mark – 20 to 25 miles and strength training. Yay.

During the second weekend, I met up with my friend Melody for a trail run. We started out early. In fact, early enough when it was still dark and neither one of us felt compelled to bring a headlamp because neither one of us anticipated it to be as dark as it was. Thank heavens for phones!

And we caught a great morning! A morning we haven’t had in a long while. Foggy and misty with a pinch of chill in the air to be cold, yet, not uncomfortable. It was perfection.

Our goal was somewhere between 10 to 12 miles. We ended up splitting it and hitting 11 which I felt good with. In fact, I could’ve stretched it longer, but I left some in the bank for later. It’s been awhile since I’ve had double digits and because I’m just trying to build up mileage again, I figured I should stop while I was ahead.

I felt good finishing off that run, and that week. Both weeks up until that point were actually on point. But I knew the following week would have a few more challenges and time constraints. In fact, the last two weeks of September where fairly busy and I just couldn’t squeeze in those runs.

It’s like how that saying goes, “If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.” It’s true. I had many excuses to select from, but the main one was, I was simply exhausted. My body was sleepy and tired and being around people who were sick with end of summer colds and coughs, I wanted to make sure my body was rested to fight any cooties I may come in contact with. Yes, I wrote cooties.

It seems earlier in the month I had a bout of insomnia and my body would wake up several times during the night and at weird times. 11PM. 1AM. 3AM. And really anywhere in between. When I awoke in the 3AM hour, it’d take me awhile to get moving but I’d get out the door to get my workout in.

The past couple of weeks I’ve actually slept fairly well, but I didn’t wake up early enough to get any solid runs in. I’d set the intentions of running in the evening but when I do, my sleep usually gets interrupted, and I didn’t want to mess with my restful nights.. My body is quite finicky. However, I did manage to reach the trails midweek. This was a new trail; one that I’ve never been on. Therefore, one I’m not familiar with at all.

Aside from the two people leaving the trail as I set foot on it, I didn’t come across anyone else for most of the run. The area was quiet and the dark gloomy skies that loomed overhead made it eerily spooky. But it was also peaceful. And that day I needed it.

The mountains rose up along the sides of me and I found myself peeking up often, making sure there were no coyotes or mountain lions wanting to make me their dinner.

Even though I enlisted the help of Google maps to try and get a sense of the trails, I still didn’t know which trails met up with what, and how I would get back before darkness settled in. I figured the most sensible thing for me to do was make it an out and back route.

When I was about to reach my turnaround point, I saw an older gentleman – the only person I actually saw on the trail while I was on it – running along the path towards me.

“Great weather, isn’t it?” he said.

“Absolutely!” I replied, wondering which way he came from, and how far he was running, and did he start where I started, and was he doing a loop, or out and back too? I’ll never know.

So many questions I didn’t get answered because I reached a fork in the trail and figured that was my point to turn around and head home. Hey, maybe I’ll catch up to him! Nope.

When I was almost back to the trailhead, I noticed a sign post with arrows in left and right directions. I remembered seeing this at the beginning and I turned left. When I came upon this post again, there was no trail for me to turn down. Hmmm. Well now…

I kept running and figured I’m only about half a mile to the trailhead and if I didn’t see the actual post of when I turned left, I could always turn around. Ugh. I honestly didn’t want to get lost here. But, alas! The sign post! And the trail that led me home.

I made my right turn, and immediately came upon this cute furry friend:

Once the only kind of furry critter I like seeing on the trails took off running, so did I, and a minute later I heard a gallop of footsteps behind me. A slew of high school cross country boys passed me and all I could think of was, where the heck did they come from?! I’ll never know.

That day, I completed 3 miles of some new trails I’d like to run again. But next time, I think I’ll turn right and see where those trails go.

As for October goals, I don’t know yet. However, I should figure them out soon because considering how fast September (and August) flew by, this month will probably be over before I know it.

Thanks for reading!