Weekends are typically for long runs. It's nearly impossible to fit a two hour run in on a workday. I'm in Birmingham to celebrate my husband's birthday this weekend. The Weather Channel promised me a 50 degree sunny forecast for Saturday and Sunday, and I was excited to pack shorts for my long run. Well, what I got instead this morning was an overcast 40 with 15 mph winds. I went to Walmart after lunch and was discouraged thinking I was going to have to put my long run off until tomorrow and hope the weather turned around. However, after a short nap when I got home, I was pleasantly surprised to see sunshine. With tights and my nike element (always be prepared) that I also packed, the temperature seemed bearable, so I decided to go for long.
Just down the road from my house in Gardendale is a little park called Black Creek Park. From there is a trail that is part of the Rails to Trails program turning old train tracks into biking and running trails. It's a packed gravel trail that is great to run on. This particular stretch is 3.4 miles one way, so that's where I started. It's really quite pleasant: surrounded by woods and quiet. Other than an occasional passing pedestrian, you kind of have the whole track to yourself. It's a great place to get out of your head and enjoy some fresh air.
Well, on this particular occasion, my peaceful run got a little excitement. Right after my turnaround, at almost exactly the 3.5 mark, I came across a police car driving down the track, two of them actually. Now, there are no motor vehicles allowed on the trail, so any car was a bit of a surprise. I noticed him slowing down and rolling down his window. So I paused my run and my music and walked up to the now stopped vehicle.
"Have you seen anyone around here with a rifle?"
I'll give you a moment to let that sink in. I was a caught off guard by the question to say the least. I told him no and asked if I should be concerned. He told me that he didn't think I should worry; he said that he thinks someone was probably just out target practicing, but they received a complaint. I did tell him about a car that was parked at the end of the trail, and he said he'd check it out. He confirmed one more time for me that I was good, and I returned to my run.
Now, Gardendale (or technically Fultondale) is a pretty quiet and safe place to live. And it certainly is the type of small southern town where people do randomly fire off their rifles at targets on the weekends, so I really wasn't too concerned. Especially when the two cops passed me again on their way back and didn't stop. I assumed that if I was in danger that they would have picked me up. I will say this: it may have been the possibility of a random gunman or the excitement of it all, but I shaved 2 minutes off of my 7 mile time from last Saturday which was 1:10'26. Today, I finished 7 in 1:08'33. And then I went on to finish 10 in 1:39'41. That's 10 miles in under 100 minutes. I'm so happy that I'm keeping up my pace on long runs. Maybe this whole streaking thing is starting to pay off!
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