Lions and tigers and bears . . .

For anyone who cares . . . Last night I went for my first run since my ITBFS diagnosis. I was more than a little concerned because, really, there’s six and a half months of my life at stake here! I rubbed lots of Body Glide Warmth on my knee before I squeezed into my knee brace and hit the river trail in my new running shoes. (Which look a lot like orthopedic bowling shoes. Expensive orthopedic bowling shoes.) The good news is - it felt just fine! Yippee! I put in about 5 miles and no hills, and called it enough as a “let’s see how it feels later” run. The other good news is that it actually hurt more when I first started so it was motivation to not take any breaks! I also swallowed about twelve little bugs. When are those nasty things leaving us for the year, anyway? They’re gross. Now, the hairy part is when I was about done and within 50 yards of my car, I looked up and saw an animal about the size of a very large dog on the side of the trail. It was tawny colored, with a curved, black-tipped tail. And it was just hanging out on the side of the trail. Ohmigod, it’s that freakin’ mountain lion that hangs out down here! My heart stood still. Note: I am very aware of the mountain lion sightings on this part of the trail. I commonly and frequently make whooping sounds to warn them off, followed by a “Nice kitty, here kitty, kitty” refrain. My first reaction was to look behind me since I obviously wasn’t going forward. Then I looked for a tree to climb. Then I realized that wouldn’t matter because mountain lions are pretty good tree climbers, right? Then I tried to remember - do you play dead or make yourself look big? I have nothing to make myself look big with and I’m not keen on playing dead because I soon could be fer reals. Then I realized there are virtually no mountain lions that wear blue collars. Ha! It was some dog impersonating a mountain lion, after all. But damn, it was a good impersonation!