407 Prayer flags & a Bald Eagle

Ok, I ran 5.57 miles at the rails today in the blistering cold.  Well, “blistering” might be the wrong adjective to use here but it was a bit chilly of a run.  The temperature was 55 degrees and the wind coming from the ocean was quite strong and cut easily through my dual layered clothing.

There were quite a few obstacle thrown in the way to keep me from running but I remained focus and ran any way.  First obstacle was the nagging hip pain I’m feeling thanks to a crab.  Yes, that’s right…a crab.  A crab injured me last Wednesday during my 8.24 mile run.

407 prayer flags at the end of the rails to trails in savannah, ga with a soundtrack…

407 Prayer Flags at the RTT (with sound effects) from Dan Hernandez on Vimeo.

I was running with a friend at the rails this past Wednesday.  We ran the Eastern section of the rtt and then into Ft. Pulaski.  When I run with some body it almost always becomes competitive.  I could sense that Nelson was trying to take the lead so, I kicked up the pace ever so slightly just to let him know that to pass me would be costly.  Apparently, he understood because he remained just a few feet behind me until the turn around in ft. pulaski.  As we approached the ft. pulaski bridge that would take us back to the rails he kicked it up a notch and pulled ahead on me.  I remained on his heals until we approached mainland again and just before exiting the bridge I pulled ahead of him.   When we reached the rails again, I decided it was time to end this competition and kicked it up to a few notches.  After about two minutes I realized that I had beaten him -so, I settled into a comfortable pace knowing that he was not going to catch me.  As I ran, though, a bunch of fiddler crabs scattered in front of me in every direction and I tried to avoid stepping on them.  One crab in particular ran straight in front of where my right foot was about to land and I quickly jerked my leg to avoid stepping on it and just landed wrong.  I immediately felt a sharp pain in my right hip.  I cursed myself for being so reluctant to step on crabs.  The rest of the run my hip ached badly.  Still, though, I kept up a strong pace because I did not want Nelson to pass me up.  Any way, I finished 45 seconds ahead of Nelson and believe it or not, I avoided stepping on any crabs the entire run!  My hip, though, was aching for the next three days.

Today, as I left for the rails to run, my neighbor, Ms. Keane, called me saying that she locked her keys in her car and asked if I would mind going to her house and fetching her spare key.  I didn’t really want to do it because I was already on the road and geared up for the run but I knew that I needed to help her out -so, I turned around and got her spare key and ran it to her at home depot where she had locked her keys in the car.  I hit the heavy traffic toward the rails and when I got there the county was giving the entrance to the rails a make-over by removing big planks of wood and large concrete slabs with a bulldozer.

I actually felt so fed up at seeing the bulldozer blocking the entrance to the rtt that I turned around and got back in my car to leave but then, I decided against that, turned off my car and patiently waited for the bulldozer to move enough to give me access to the rails.

I took off running slowly on the western section of the rails with the wind cutting through me relentlessly.  I tell you, I was getting fed up again and almost turned around and ran back to my car to go home and soak in a hot shower.  Then, though, I saw one of the most beautiful sites!  I saw a bald eagle perched on a tree!  When I got too close it took off!  It flew off too fast for me to photograph it.  It was amazing!  This was the first bald eagle I’ve seen in this part of the country.  I was blown away.  I totally forgot about the hip pain, the frustrating events that occurred earlier and the sharp cutting wind.  I felt lucky and honored to be able to witness this graceful and powerful bird fly away.  I was so moved that I stood in attention and recited the pledge of allegiance with my hand to my heart.  Ok, ok, I lie.  I didn’t feel moved to recite the pledge of allegiance but it was totally cool to see a bald eagle at the rails!  How very cool is that? huh?  Yeah, awesome.

I also saw a group of big black birds at the rails today and was able to get a couple of pictures of them.  They looked like vultures.  The picture above is in black and white for a more ominous effect.  Do you feel that effect?  i hope so.

Here is what I call a pretty cool picture of the big black birds I took as they flew off into the ominous sunset.  Today’s word of the day is “ominous”.  Can you say “ominous”?  Say it after me, “o-mi-nous”!  That’s right, you got it.  Cool.

I leave you with a self-taken picture of my super cool self at the end of the rails to trails.  As you can see, I’m all wintered out.

Have a great Sunday and week.

Peace be upon you.

Thanks for taking the time to reading this blog.

Oh, the wildlife inventory!

wildlife inventory:

• 1 bald eagle
• 4 crabs
• 1 mocking bird
• 1 grackle
• 1 flock of big black vulture looking birds
• 1 cargo ship
• 1 bulldozer

Links:

• my running log

dh

10/17/2009