Snakes (well, snake) alive!

I almost forgot about the most dramatic part of my run yesterday!

I have a few running fears that I carry somewhere at the back of my head: unfriendly dogs, being hit by a car, meeting up with bad company in a dark alley (although I generally avoid both running in the dark and alleys), along with some other somewhat rational worries. One of my biggest, and most ridiculous fears, though, is running right onto a snake! Can you imagine?! Just jogging along the side of the road and one of those little critters slithering his scary little self out of the grass and right under your foot? What would happen? What if one touched me with its slithery snake tongue?! (I'm really less worried about being bitten and more concerned about accidentally making contact with a snake...they really gross me out.)

Well, yesterday, at about mile 9, while running through a neighborhood and taking in the scenery, I looked down just in time to see my foot almost trample a huge, hungry, vicious cobra! Due to my amazing dexterity and speed, I was able to swerve and miss him and barely escaped with my life.

Actually, it wasn't quite that dramatic. There was a snake and I did almost step on him, but he was not that threatening. He was maybe 2 feet long, skinny, a little wimpy looking and almost cute (as far as snakes go, I mean). I still jumped 4 feet into the air, yelped, and sprinted out of its proximity, but I was over it in 30 seconds.

The morale of this story is that my fear (literally running into a snake), when realized, was actually not that bad. It was much worse in my imagination and now that it's over, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to survive any future serpentine encounters.

I'm having a little fear about 20 miles next weekend. Perhaps it won't be as bad in retrospect either? (I think that's a stretch.)