Earlier this week I went for a short run with Derek, who I met on Vertical Runner's message board. Surprisingly it ends up that he lives in the neighborhood right next to me so we should be able to get in a good amount of runs together. His running ability is very similar to mine and he's only one year older than me so it works out well. Tonight we decided to head over to the Happy Days Visitor Center to run some trails.
Large open field near the ledges
We started off heading towards the ledges and then continued south towards Kendall Lake.
Kendall Lake
Once we passed by the lake we then continued over to the Kendall Hills (our turnaround point) where we made a bathroom stop. As we turned to head back, we ran a couple of the hills hard and enjoyed the view at the top. This area is great for hill repeats and really works your breathing.
The best part of the whole run took place right before we crossed over the road next to Kendall Lake. I was running and drinking out of my water bottle at the same time when I heard Derek say "Check out this deer". I paused for a second expecting to see a deer somewhere off in the distance, maybe 40 or 50 ft. away from us. However, when I turned and looked to the left it startled me to see that the deer was only about 8 ft. from us. I know that the Cuyahoga Valley wildlife is very tame but this was the closest I had ever come to a deer on a run. I stopped and took out my camera and decided to see just how close I could get to it. I got within about 5-6 ft. from it when I noticed it starting to get nervous and beginning to scratch its hoofs at me in the dirt. As I took this video you can hear Derek at the end say "Watch out dude, he's coming after you"
That's when I decided to back off and not end up like "The Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin. It was quite an amazing experience while it lasted though. Next time I promise I will jump on top of Bambi and take her for a ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment