Speed Workout with Sheila

Abby and I had a great little run planned for this afternoon.  She was somewhat sluggish from a sleepover last night and I only had a 3 or 4 mile run on the schedule.  We decided to head to Liberty Park and run a loop through the woods.

Upon starting our run, we noticed five or six older folks positioned at various locations along the outer loop of the park.  They had binoculars and were staring intently up at the very lovely blue sky.  This sort of thing makes me nervous though......what are they watching for?  Is a meteor about to tumble from the sky and bonk me on the head?  Abby thought maybe she remembered Jerry saying there is a bald eagle nest in the park.  I had no recollection of that, but I tend to believe whatever she says.  Her brain is 30 years younger and much sharper than mine.

As we passed one of the women standing watch at her position, I asked what she was looking for?  She lowered her binoculars and flatly said, "hawks."  OK. Fine. I'm cool with hawks.  Red-winged blackbirds not so much, but hawks are okay.

A little further ahead was yet another man standing at the entrance to the trail we wanted to run on.  This guy was serious about his hawk watching.  He even had a megaphone thingy that apparently was equipped to squawk like a hawk (cute, huh?) by pressing a button or something.  As Abby and I approached, he starting making it squawk like crazy and then he started walking really fast down the trail and holding the megaphone thingy towards the ground.  Abby and I stopped and tried to figure out what was going on.  Hawks are usually in the sky. He was looking in the wrong place.

Then we saw that he was chasing a 5 or 6 ft black rat snake down the trail.  His friends all started running towards us.  Abby started formulating alternate routes knowing that I really really really do not like snakes, especially big black ones like that! That thing was huge!

Then Abby said, "Hey I think that's Shelia!"  We remembered that the city naturalist who helped in her 5th and 6th grade classroom often spoke very highly about his snake friend, Sheila.  He even brought Sheila's shed skin into the classroom and stapled it onto the wall.  Sheila was not just a snake, she was his friend and would often visit his little office in the Old Stone House located at the other end of the park. 

At this point, the hawk observers asked if we would like to see the snake also.  I replied that I would prefer to NOT see the snake but we would head down the trail anyways.  Hence the title of this blog - I don't think I have ever run that fast!  We were laughing and squealing all the way down the trail just thinking about Sheila chasing us! I charged up those hills, through the stream and over the roots and rocks like never before.


So now I'm wondering if I can somehow turn this into a new type of workout.  Buy my new workout program for $19.95 and we'll include a real rubber snake at no extra charge.  That's right a REAL rubber snake.  You just need someone to hide in the trees and toss it out at you as you run by!

And by the way, if my husband or daughters try this I will make their lives miserable for a long, long time!  I would not appreciate that at all.....