Running in Texas

Jared knew, going into this job as the sole provider of the occ med clinic in Madisonville, that he would need to make appearances at certain events every few months or so throughout the year, to show "visibility" for the clinic and rub shoulders with members of the community.

As it turns out, Madisonville is the Mushroom Capital of Texas...Home of the Texas Mushroom Festival. This year the festival is on Sat. October 18th. Jared looked it up online shortly after getting here and discovered they have the Shiitake 5K walk/run, so we decided to get back into running mode and are planning to do the 5K run together. As a side note: unless you're talking about Jake or JJ, we currently use the term "run" extremely loosely in the Hough household. Cooper's going to train for it too. If we can get someone to watch our kiddos up there, Jake can run it also. Otherwise, he'll need to bow out to give Coop a chance.

I ran one day in July and then another day the following week before Jared got home and one day last week. I let him get his first week at the new job under his belt and then declared the beginning of this week to be go-time. We got up at 5am Monday morning and Jared chuckled when he saw current weather conditions with 90% humidity and even though the actual temperature was in the low 70s, the temperature felt like it was in the high 70s. I've run in warmer temperatures than that before (minus the humidity), but it's just weird when it's still dark outside.

To get started, we were only going to run a two mile loop down to one of the swimming pools in the subdivision and then back again. Jared always runs ahead of me. He's a very strong runner and has great endurance, even though I had run a few times before him. But I didn't mind one bit. We would alternate running on the sidewalk or the side of the road. We live south of town, so it's like running in the country. It must have been a transition time of day too, because most the street lamps were shutting off, but there were a few scattered along our course that were still on.

As we rounded the perimeter of the pool, about halfway into our jog, I noticed an object in the road up ahead. It appeared to be rope or a strip of blown-out tire that you sometimes see on the highway. As I type this I realize now the latter is a pretty unlikely explanation for an object on the road. This was a subdivision we were running in. Nevertheless, it didn't even phase me. There was a token street lamp further down the road casting it's faintest, outer beams on the street where I was at the time and right as I was mid-air, leaping over the object, I happened to look down (don't look down!) and my heart all but jumped out of my chest. It was a HUGE SNAKE!! I SCREAMED at the top of my lungs and Jared, up ahead, turned around in surprise. I flew past him screaming some more, "That was a SNAKE! Didn't you see it? Ewww!! I'm OUTTA HERE!" Fortunately we were on the side of the pool/pond where there were no homes (at least for now) so I don't think I alarmed anyone with my early morning outburst.

I was so focused on putting distance between me and the snake--dead or alive, I did not care--that I turned down the road that would take me past the snake again instead of going straight back home. Once I realized my mistake, I made a sharp correction and almost barreled into Jared, who had caught up to me asking, "Going to see it again?" NO SIREE!

I shivered the whole way home (while dripping with sweat) to get the icky, freaky thought of me narrowly missing a snake with my feet out of my mind. The good news is, I shaved 20 seconds off my previous run time :)

A couple hours later, I was taking Jake to the church to play basketball with a friend. He wanted to see if the snake was still there. I'm not sure if I was hoping it would still be there (because even if it were dead, I'd have to face it again) or not (which meant it was very much alive when I did a Jack-Be-Nimble over it).

It was there. Jake jumped out to investigate and I followed slowly behind him.

First of all, before anyone laughs, that snake looked three times BIGGER that morning, in the dark. I showed Jared and he concurred that it did look much, much bigger. So for the record, it wasn't just me exaggerating from all of the early morning trauma. I can only conclude the shadows created by the faint lamplight had something to do with that.

I did some quick research and to my very untrained, non-herpetologist eye, I think this is a black racer snake which likes land and water both, but not poisonous. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. That and EWWW!

Jared and I went running again this morning. I felt slower today. I was being a little more cautious about where I ran...and found myself in the middle of the road, avoiding any faint line in the road, real or imaginary, and giving a wide berth to the sidewalks by the grassy fields or near the ponds.

I cannot believe the amount of sweat that starts running down my head and dripping off my fingertips within the first 1/2 mile. We're soaked by the time we finish. It's almost like you're getting the benefits of a sauna while you run :) Maybe I'll sweat off a pound or two in the process.

I was stunned to see I had shaved another 20 seconds off my run time from Monday...when I had extra motivation from a snake. I wondered if maybe the humidity was giving me super running powers or maybe, just maybe, I'm getting stronger.

I asked Jared what he thought about me running 2 minutes faster per mile here in Texas than I did in Oregon. His response: "It's flatter here." Yeah...touché.