Pace: 8:43
Wine consumed: 1 glass of delicious malbec
I am, yet
again, traveling for work (anyone sensing a pattern here?). This time I’m in Albuquerque for two
days. Two of my Albuquerque co-workers
are runners, so I asked for advice on where I could safely run a 7 mile tempo
run near downtown on a Tuesday morning.
My friend, Soccer Star, does not often run in this area, so she deferred
to our other co-worker, Trail Runner. He
was nice enough to go to the trouble of printing me a map (which is evidently
quite hard to do because everything is meant for phone apps these days) and
give me a 7ish mile route taking me up a multi-use path along the Rio Grande. Soccer Star and Trail Runner confirmed there
are no bears in Albuquerque and Trail Runner assured me that the run should be
safe, so long as I finished by midnight on Friday (to which I replied if my run
was not finished by midnight on Friday, I’d have bigger problems than the
neighborhood). He told me the path
would be populated by bikers, runner, dog walkers, etc. Cool. He then mentioned that it was totally an anomaly that downtown Albuquerque had a random rape/homicide in the middle of the afternoon a couple years ago. Not cool.
(Not so much the ideal scenery for a solo run.)
Just after
7:30 local time, I texted Husband #1 I was running and that if he hadn’t heard
from me in an hour and a half that he should be worried. I began my route. Thanks to Trail Runner’s clear instructions, I
easily located the paved multi-use path and headed north, as directed. Soon, I lost sight of the city and was
surrounded by nature. Beautiful
nature: trees changing into bright
autumn hues, idyllic streams, ducks, all that jazz. And the 12-foot high chain link fence topped
with barbed wire that ran along the path about 30-50 feet to my right,
effectively blocking me from re-entering civilization. Oh, and contrary to Trail Runner’s
representations, there were no people.
None. For very long stretches I
was the only human in sight. A little
tidbit about me – my favorite genre of books and television (other than The
Biggest Loser, of course) is crime mystery/drama. Because of this, I know that my current
situation is often how such stories begin.
Now, in fairness to Trail Runner, I was probably never in any danger,
but that is easy for him to say because he is (1) a faster runner and (2) a
man. I kept my music low so I could hear
mysterious rustling in the bushes and ran on, imagining the parade of horribles
that might wait around the next bend.
(This was what my running route looked like.)
(Or this.)
About 2
miles into my run, a roller blader came whizzing by from the other
direction. He had a ski cap on and had
his collar pulled tight up around his face (oh, yeah, it was 48 degrees and I
was the only one out without my winter gear on). A couple minutes after he passed me, I looked
behind me and noticed he had turned and was coming back my way. This was the only human I’d seen in over 5
minutes. Oh my god, he knows we’re alone
and he’s coming back to kill me! I
immediately start planning my escape. On
wheels, he is faster, but not if I go off the pavement. I can dash through the brush and into the
stream, hopefully losing him on the other side.
And he is a slight fellow, I probably have 15 pounds on him. I can take him! Sh#$!
What if he has a weapon? I hadn’t
considered a weapon. I decide to flee
through the stream. I need a running
partner! Why didn’t I beg Soccer Star to
run with me??? I’m ripped from my
thoughts by a woman’s voice: “passing on your left.” The roller blader whizzed by me again. This
time I saw her braids and realized my would-be assailant was simply a woman out
for a leisurely skate. Crisis
averted. This is how miles 2-5.5 of
my run went. I managed to survive
numerous imagined threats.
(I evaded hidden murderers because the odds were ever in my favor.)
I love the picture of what your route looked like. :)
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