Monday, September 15, 2014

My Run In With A Grumpy Snake

I haven't seen one snake while running this entire year. Crazy! Well, that streak ended on Saturday during a seriously beautiful run on the Prospector Trail near St. George, Utah.

As of today, the Bear 100 is only ELEVEN days away. (Yikes!) This whole taper this is going swell. I've been running a lot over the last year so I decided to give myself a nice long three week taper to get ready for the race. I only ran twice last week, both easy, casual runs. Saturday was my favorite.

The Prospector Trail is very runnable, pretty smooth single track with amazing views the whole time.


That snake I came across was a little bit grumpy. It obviously wasn't a rattle snake, but it acted like one. It coiled up, shook it's tail, and even struck toward me once. There was no chance of it getting me because I kept plenty of distance. I'm not a huge fan of these critters.


Sometimes when I see a snake they don't seem to mind at all. They just hang out. But this one was as excited to see me as I was to see it. I didn't want to bother it so I took a few pictures then went on my way.

We got lots of rain earlier in the week so the flowers were out in full bloom. This was my favorite picture of the day:

Speaking of snakes, do yourself a favor and read THIS story from It Just Gets Stranger about his experience with a sea snake. I have no hesitation guaranteeing that you will laugh so hard that you cry.

May your week be awesome and snake-free!

4 comments:

  1. My gosh, I don't think you need to mention that you saw the snake on a seriously beautiful run because I think ALL of your runs must be incredibly scenic. Well, except maybe for that HS track 100 miler.

    I'm like you with giving snakes their distance. Last summer a friend and I came across a huge black snake across the trail. Like the entire way across the trail. For once (very rare) I was in the front and stopped dead in my tracks. My friend went to make the snake move (that's how it works if you're a guy who runs with me...you're most definitely in charge of snake removal!) and it was very unwilling to get off the trail. And *I* was NOT stepping over that monster. Eventually it moved, but I was willing to run back the other way.

    It's coming up so soon! Excited for you!

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  2. I knew there'd have to be a downside to running in all that beauty. Not a big fan of snakes. Especially ones that want a piece of me.

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  3. Tell your kids that if they see a snake, to stay calm, walk away, and tell an adult straight away.הרחקת חולדות

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