I run and ride along Bellaire Drive a lot as it’s a straight
shot out to Benbrook. I see many
critters on my training adventures. Dogs
, squirrels, some snakes, armadillos (usually they’re road kill), deer, and
road runners just to name a few.
Most are totally innocent and never threaten me. Most.
Squirrels are tricky though.
Let me tell you, those suckers can turn on a dime! Although I am not afraid of squirrels, they
have, on more than one occasion, tried to make me crash on my bike by freezing
- - - turning to scamper off away from me, making me believe I may proceed with
no fear of death - - - then FOR NO
APPARENT OR RELEVANT REASON - - - running right in front of me, leading to
my imminent death.
There was a snake one day, too. I was doing repeats on Bellaire and I rode by
this poor snake (when they are dead I feel sorry for them and my fear of the
ferocious beasts wanes) who had been run over by, what looked like, a bike
tire. I rode by it, very close so as to
stay in the bike lane. It was partially
laid out and looked very much dead. I
finished my out and back and headed out again.
I made note to ride closer to the curb as I came upon the “dead” snake
again. The snake was very much NOT dead
at this point and was coiled up.
CRAP! My heart jumped.
Ok, it was not this small, but I probably overreacted
For those of you that did the Trident Sports open water swim
on July 21st, you heard about the strange fish phenomenon. Tim and I were out setting buoys on Friday
night and we came upon an area of the lake where Tim told me “water was
bubbling up, probably from a pipe under the lake.” For a moment I believed him. As I sat in my kayak looking at the bubbling
water (that was a good four feet wide), I realized this “pipe” was moving. I screamed.
No, I take that back, I squealed.
Not in joy, in pure fear. This
was straight out of a horror movie, no joke.
As I watched it, I am not sure if I was frozen in fear or pure
curiosity, but I sat and starred at it, little tiny fish started flopping out
all over the place. It was like a moving
lake crop circle. FREAKED.ME.OUT.
Deer are an elegant creature. They are truly graceful and, on occasion, I
am fortunate to see one or two deer on my rides through Benbrook. I often lose my focus as I ride by and just
watch them. However, I have this
absolutely strange fear of being rammed, entirely by accident, by a deer. My friend Larson showed me a video of a guy
getting rammed by a deer and I now have this bizarre fear of getting t-boned as
I’m riding through Benbrook. I’m truly
afraid that the doe is setting me up.
Gracefully meandering into the road to catch my attention and then BAM,
the buck gets me (yes, this is a true fear).
If they’re just grazing by the
side of the road, I’m totally cool with that.
But if one runs out in front of me my knuckles go white and I attain a
death grip on my handle bars as I await its partner that is lurking in the
trees ready to ram me. If you’d like to share
this fear with me, you can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M.
They should post signs that say, "bike stealing deer ahead"
By far, the scariest critter-related incident I had while
training occurred one evening about 11:30PM on Bellaire. I hadn’t gotten my workout in yet, so I headed
out the door at 11PM for my run. I
donned my white top, white skirt, florescent/reflective orange visor, clip on
visor light, pepper spray, and my flashing red light so as to be visible to any
passing cars (critters were not on my mind).
Well, I have watched far too many episodes of Criminal Minds to be able
to sanely venture into the dark by myself at such an hour. I was on high alert as it was. As I headed back toward my apartment, I
noticed the beady eyes of a critter focused on me. The critter was in the bike path I was
running on and I didn’t want to run too far into the street. I slowed up.
I slowed up more. It was going to
be a chicken fight and it looked like I was going to lose. The critter stood its ground, so focused on
me that it was perfectly frozen, awaiting my passing. I began to run into the street, to keep my
distance from the critter, and as I approached, to my sheer shock, I realized
what it was. A smashed beer can, with
the light from my visor reflecting on it, making it appear to have eyes.
There is absolutely no point to this post. I just thought I would humor you with some of
the things that go through my mind as I’m training J
Beware the smashed beer can animals of the night!
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