Raccoon Fun — December 18, 2021

After not running all week, I got a pair of Brooks Glycerin 19s in last night and decided I might as well test out the tolerances on the lower back/right hip this morning.

I gotta admit that I might have procrastinated a bit before heading out the door, but after finding everything else to do. Finally, I ran out of stuff and had to either call my bluff and not run or get my arse in gear. I got it in gear and headed down the road.

That first quarter-mile was rather miserable, the back/hip was rather grouchy about this running stuff, and the rest of my body wondered what was going on. The old bod told me that sitting on that new couch was a helluva lot more fun and better for me.

Once I got by the quarter-mile mark (the old VW van in the field), the complaining slowed down, and I settled into more of a jog. The Glycerin’s felt a bit snug in the forefoot, but nothing serious.

When I got down to the lower gate, I could hear this gawd awful racket and felt something watching me. I didn’t really pay that much attention to it, but it sounded like it was getting closer. When I looked up past the gates, I could see a raccoon coming down the old road.

It sounded like it was coming for dinner, and dinner it had its eye on was me. Now, I know that raccoons don’t usually prowl about in the daytime, and I had heard one sound like this before the local Game Warden put it down because it was most likely rabid.

I wasn’t going to let it get too close, so I hightailed it down the road a bit further. It had already gotten between me and going back up the hill. It kept coming at me, growling/howling and looking like I was a nice tasty morsel. It wasn’t moving that fast, so keeping ahead of it wasn’t a problem.

Finally, after the big Pine, I stopped and took an awful photo of it. I wouldn’t let it get too close and then headed out towards Tiffany. I figured that if it was still out when I came back, I would call TheWife and ask her to come down and pick me up in the truck.

Just after the first mile, the dirt road got rather icy, and I had to run on the shoulder to get to the tar on Tiffany. Everything was rather quiet and normal down there, and the road was clear once I was back on the tar, with no issues with footing.

I wondered if I would reencounter the raccoon, and when I got back to the Philbrick Road side of down-back, I kept a wary eye out on the road and the bushes on the side. I wasn’t worried about being able to outrun it, but a lunge attack from behind some brush or downed trees wouldn’t have been good.

There was no sign of the raccoon, just jumping at shadows a couple of times. It did make me get through the flats a bit faster than I had planned.

The rest of the run was about getting it done and seeing how the Glycerins felt. I could tell that I hadn’t run for almost a week and that the hip/lower back, while better, was still a bit grouchy. 

The Glycerin 19s did what I wanted, they were comfortable, and the snugness in the right forefoot seemed to go away the longer I ran in them. It will take about 30 miles or so to break them in, I have a feeling. However, they seem to be decent shoes, and I am hopeful they are what I am looking for in a daily trainer/recovery/easy run shoe.

So, I got my wish for more of an adventure on my run this morning and had to pay attention to what was going on around me. Now to get ready for the 3-6 inches of snow, they have forecast for the overnight and hope that it doesn’t turn into the usual extra inches that seem to be the new normal.