Well I guess you could say yesterday was an "interesting" one! It was a little chilly but the sun was out, so I decided to finally head back up to Topsfield and try to remember the 12.5mi loop from Stone Cat in November.
The run started out just fine, quite fun actually; staying atop the hard-packed cross-country paths as much as possible and trying to keep my footing on the looser snow. It was beautiful in the woods and I made it to the first aid station location in good time despite slipping once or twice. No one was around, the school parking lot had been empty, and (so far) no one in the woods at all. I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see a coyote but of course it didn't happen. I freaked myself out a few times, stopping in my tracks and pausing the iPod to scan the forest...nothing.
About 3mi into the loop I was cruising down a hill (finally remembering some turns) to a main trail intersection when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Two big deer were running the same direction as me, about 70 yards or so from me. Wait, what were they running from? I scanned the woods behind them and saw something shorter moving behind some trees but couldn't quite make it out. So, I decided it would be a good time to pull that little switchblade that I run with from my pocket and carry it in my right hand, with water bottle in the left.
I kept moving and made the decision that if I hit the 1hr point in my run and had lost my way I would turn around, as it takes about 2hrs to complete the loop and I didn't wanna spend all day in the woods. So :55 came, then 1:00 and I remembered a turn, then another! I was really excited to see some familiar landscape again - maybe I could finish the whole loop. Well that was short-lived as I ran another 10 minutes waiting for the 7.5mi, second aid station location and came up empty. I ran directly into another main intersection and had officially lost my trail. Worst case scenario, I had run alongside a paved road with houses about 20mins ago and could easily make it back there. But I headed forward and followed that main trail for another few minutes. Then suddenly I came out on the main loop but heading the opposite direction (good) and at about the 3mi point (awesome). So I would simply do the last few miles as an out-and-back...I chuckled.
I hit the hilly segment that would cover those last few miles and was cruising again, kinda pumped I'd still get a 2hr run in and was gonna get some lunch before my chiropractor appt. Well nothing is planned, I was heading down the first hilltop and missed a step somewhere, taking a nice tumble right for a downed log. I stopped short of that log, but hit another smaller one that was still alive, standing tall. I had smashed my knee pretty hard and inspected the damage. Bruised for sure but nothing major...so where was all that blood coming from? Somehow I managed to gash two of my knuckles on the left hand pretty bad. My middle finger was cut to the bone and bleeding badly, the ring finger wasn't quite as bad but bleeding just the same. I took the plain water from my waist belt and washed them...and again...and again, the bleeding continued.
After a few minutes I had to get up and moving, so I put the two injured knuckles in my mouth and ran while playing the role of vampire. I made it out of the woods about 25mins later, tired and a little dehydrated. Inspecting the cuts, they were way too clean and even to be anything other than the outside of the knife blade I'd been holding in the other hand...little bit embarrassing. It never opened but the outside "edge" had hit pretty hard. I won't be taking that thing out of my pocket while running anymore!
Starting the drive south I called Jana and had her cancel my appointment and she offered to drive me to the ER...what a sweety! She'd skip work for me? ;-)
In the end all was fine, I laughed about it all day...until she started sewing my fingers shut...
