Always wear a helmet
Travis says that wearing a helmet will make life safer. That might be true for running in certain urban areas on bike paths with commuters or wild inconsiderate riders or anywhere that cars cross through the same intersection, but not today. We met at 7:30AM at a park for an out-and-back long run on a wide trail through the forest with a water break a couple of miles in. Scott was on a schedule and planned to do 18. I said that I would run 14 with him – that was a lot for me given my level of training. My biggest hope was to not slow him down too much.
The run started out faster than anticipated as we met a friend of Scott’s on a shorter run who asked if he could run a couple of miles “with” us, but who immediately set the pace. He peeled off after a few miles and we continued on at a pace that varied with the effort required by the hills. It was a fairly normal day with conversation and comments as well as observations about the huge number of people on the trail that morning – the Team in Training groups had discovered our site.
About mile 12 we stopped for water and spoke for a minute or two with some other runners and then headed towards the gate. We had run about half of that distance, when Craaaack, bam. At that point we both knew that something was falling our direction. This late in the run I didn’t have much speed or flexibility and I kept a forward course. The noise was on Scott’s side and he was more motivated. He turned left, pushing me forward and out of the way and increased his margin of safety – nearly bowling me over in doing so. A pine branch over 20 feet long and about 6 inches in diameter (when we have a beer, we add an imaginary weight of
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several tons), crashed down parallel to and about four feet from the trail. It made a noise (humor).
The limb fell exactly beside us as we passed. We stopped and looked and it had been a clean break. Wow, all of our paces and breaks and start time had randomly placed us there when this happened. At the gate I decided to stick with Scott for two more miles and contemplate this helmet idea.I am a minimalist when it comes to certain activities. I think that a suitcase should be light. I will eat dehydrated food when hiking because I think that the pack should be as light as possible. I don’t like to wear a watch when running because it is too heavy. But I have another reason.
None of us is as skinny as we would like but I feel reasonably competent in my ability to judge whether my car will fit in a space or pass in a gap or if my body will slide through an opening. But I have been mistaken. Running along the Charles River away from town and past the JFK Bridge, we turned left to cross the river. I passed a traffic sign hugging close to the pole when pop. I felt some contact and looked down to see that my watch had caught the pole and broken off from the band. I was uninjured but I realized that I had allowed enough space for my body, but I had not allowed for the watch. Sometimes, I am too accurate for my own good or too willing to buck the blame.
A runner friend of mine decided that his new challenge would be to catch a leaf as it was falling from a tree on an autumn day without breaking stride. This seems easy, but once you start, you realize that the leaves fall faster than you expect, they are already closer to the ground than you think,
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vertical and horizontal distances are hard to compare and that aerodynamics can foil your grab. My experience has shown that choosing the right leaf to chase is the key to success. I find one that is relatively close but still high up so that you have time to slow down but don’t need to speed up. Keep it in sight, close the gap so that you reach up to grab it with your dominant hand. The other key is to repeat the above until you get lucky.
I never look straight down when I am running unless I am really tired or the terrain is very uneven. My gaze is generally about 10 feet ahead, and I often don’t see things unless they are out of place. More than once I have seen something that I didn’t want to step in or on only after my forward foot was headed towards a landing. Examples include a variety of snakes on trails, a tarantula in California, a cactus in Mexico, dog poo all around the world, mud puddles, holes in sidewalks, etc. My reaction is always instantaneous and generally correct, but it can cause laughter later. Usually a snake will not move or move only at the last minute. That means a stretch of the stride, an awkward skip and a bit of luck. The poor snake is freaked out and has nothing else it can do except prey (humor). This is best appreciated alone or when a running buddy makes a sudden weird escape movement.
Thud. No, louder. Thuud. No, louder and closer. ¡¡¡Thuuuhhhhhddddddd!!! Yes, that is what the squirrel sounded like when it landed on the ground next to us. Squirrels are amazing animals and show no fear as they make leaps from branch to branch, seemingly daring Isaac Newton to redefine his basic laws of physics or at least grudgingly admit
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their tremendous abilities. I usually just shake my head and wonder how they pull off those crazy acrobatic stunts. Sure they miss, but they always recover and grab another branch. And they aren’t like monkeys that sort of cheat by using their tails. Squirrels just go for it, and they always make it or recover before paying the real price of gravity and falling.
Or do they? What caused this ¡¡¡Thuuuhhhhhddddddd!!!??? We looked and a grey squirrel was right beside us and looked more startled than us and it had just fallen out of a tree. Hah, Mr. Squirrel, it is about time. But Mr. Squirrel was different than buttered toast or bread with peanut butter on it; he landed face up and feet down. He looked left and then right and then scampered unhurt and undaunted towards the nearest tree. I saw a few squirrels on another run and they had not learned any lesson about showboating. But I don’t leap between trees and I know that Travis thinks that I would be safer if I wore a helmet. Maybe he is right.
