Two Hours on the Towpath

With no work scheduled for today, I decided to make the spring pilgrimage to the Towpath for a nice, long run.  I love the towpath for several reasons:  it's soft to run on, the scenery is lovely, it's quiet.  I dislike the towpath because it can get really boring and I usually feel somewhat afraid being there alone.  I spend the first mile or so in hyper-vigilant mode with ears on and eyes wide open.  You never know what or who could be lurking in the shadows.  Today I was even more unnerved because of the extremely dense fog.  I took a before and after picture standing at station road looking out at the Rt 82 bridge.  Check this out! 


It took about an hour for the fog to lift.  My plan was to run for one hour and then turn around.  I always run slow on the towpath so I figured that would give me at least 12 miles.  The run was pretty uneventful save for the red-winged black birds who waited for me on the boardwalk.  For several summers I was literally assaulted by a red-winged black bird who built his/her nest near the path where I run pretty much everyday.  They are evil.  Pure evil.  During that time they would swoop down at me, fly into my shoulders, peck at my head, all the time they would be making that chuck, chuck, chucking sound.  I was severely traumatized!  It was the furthest thing from my mind today.  I had just turned around to head back to station road when I saw and heard them all at the same moment.  I started shouting "No, no, nonononononono, Oh God, Oh !@#$%!"  My shadow was in front of me.  Why was I moving SO SLOW?  I made it to the end of the board walk and felt like a complete idiot.  No one was around, thank the Lord!  It got me thinking about fear and how it sneaks up on you like that.  I try to live a "No Fear" kind of life but all it took was those stupid little birds to remind me today that I am not fearless.  I hate them.  I really do.