Mel On...Cheating Death

Today I am pretty sure I cheated death (Mom, just stop reading now)....

Background:   It's football season (Roll Tide!) and we are living in Germany.  That means we have to get up (and/or stay up) all hours of the night every Saturday to watch it live (cause lets face it, is there any other way?). So I sleep in on Saturdays and my husband gets Sundays.

Well today, when my little love muffin decides to roll out of bed, it is raining.  And, I'm not talking about a little sprinkle...pouring.  So I wait, then the kids have a friend come over to play, then I have to watch the final series episode(s) of ER, then it's raining again, then I have to cook dinner, then the kids need bathed, then it's 7:00 p.m., and then I decide it's the perfect time to go for a 10 mile run.

Note to self.  IT IS FALL.  The it's-always-sunny-until-10pm ship has sailed.  SAILED.

And, my husband did try to warn me...but who listens to husbands?  Silly husbands.  So off I went, thinking I was totally prepared with my phone/GPS and mini flashlight I just bought from the sports store.  So prepared that I thought I would take the long loop a village over.  Should have been simple, 8 miles there and back with a 2 mile loop around the village.  Perfect 10.  Perfect plan.  Let's do it!

Well, 6 miles in it starts getting a bit...dim.  No worries, almost home, I got this.  I whip out my handy-dandy flashlight as I get to the wooded portion of the trail.  Little did I know my "flashlight" was one of those little lights you click on and then 5 seconds later it loses it's power and you have to wind it up for like 90 seconds for another 5 seconds of light....CRAP.  By this point, it's twice as dark in the woods as it was in the fields and I am alone, and without my mace, and without my glasses.  DOUBLE CRAP.

So I did the only thing I could do at that point and that was to sprint.  For like a mile.  The longest mile in my life.  I can barely see a thing far out in front of me in the daytime, let alone at night, let alone while trying to wind a stupid little flashlight, let alone while sprinting.  So of course I jumped sideways and nearly fell over like an idiot when I finally realized the "shadow" in front of me was, in fact, an actual person.  But he looked just as scared as I was so maybe he got fooled by the stupid little flashlight bin at the sports store too.

Needless to say, I was never so happy as I was when I finally got to the path that leads into our village.  LIGHTS!  I see LIGHTS!  Too bad, they were still a good 2 miles away.  At this point I was seriously considering calling my husband to come and get me (but I really didn't want to hear the "I told you so" that I knew was coming and that I knew I deserved).  Then it hit me...my phone as a flashlight app...score!

The flashlight app is awesome...as long as your battery is above a certain level and all you care to see is 2 feet in front of you (after that, all bets are off). And mine was, for about 10 minutes.  Long enough for there to be some sort of light when passing two strangers with barking dogs (me and dogs do not mix well on this particular loop, hence the need for mace).  I almost had a heart-attack.  I think that is when the adrenaline kicked in.  Then or when I was on the main road (with no street lights) and the app actually stopped working.  All I could think about was my daughter looking down at me from the second floor window as I headed out for my run (she likes to watch as I start down the hill), "Do a good job running, Mommy!  I love you!"  This WAS NOT going to be our last memory (I think I warned you before that I am a bit dramatic).  Another all-out sprint to the village.

By the time I got home I was almost in tears.  But I was alive.  I knew what my changes were....I watch "Law and Order". You go running at night in the woods and you are the dead body they find in the opener.  The "I told you not to go running this late" chorus my husband sang when I got home was music to my ears because I was alive to hear it!  I didn't even care he made me take a shower before he would let me crawl into his lap like a baby (don't judge).

...at least I got my run in...and I didn't get eaten by a rabid animal or have a psycho killer attack me or get hit by a car...and I didn't get rained on...so...#win?

The wooded trail 

The lights of my wonderful little village...almost there!

THAT road leading into the village, the one you can't see because there are no street lights, that is the last stretch of road I ran, a little under 1/2 mile, without my flashlight app...NEVER AGAIN!