Encounters with beasts

Today was the first time I'd gone trail running in several years. In the Boston area, there just aren't very many trails.

Luckily, there's Nose Hill Park. But man! does it have a lot of ups and downs!

When we were first looking for places to live, we looked at one place that was only a few blocks from the park - that would've been really nice. But I live much farther away now. So I have to drive to get to the park now. Today I remembered to bring running gear when I went to the city so I stopped in on the way home.

At a little more than 11 square kilometers, the park dwarfs Central Park in NYC (which is only 3 1/2 square kms), and has the added bonus of no muggers!

There are however plenty of off-leash areas, which is fine most of the time, though at one point I was approached by a dog whose owner was nowhere in sight. It looked friendly, and turned out to be so, but it gave me a moment's pause, especially after reading a story in the paper last week about a jogger who needed stitches after being attacked by two dogs.

I've started carrying my cell phone while running for just that reason (and because I'm a bit of a klutz and you never know when I'll injure myself). In the newspaper article, the woman also had a cell phone with her and called 911, but she was busy enough fending off the animals that she couldn't make her location understood to the dispatcher on the other end. In her case, it was passersby who saw her dilemma and called for the help that arrived.

Maybe it's a bit paranoid, but anytime I encounter a dog not on a leash, I wonder what it will do when it encounters me. I've had several such encounters. Most of the time the dog is uninterested, but I've also had unattended dogs try to play or give chase, and it always gets me wondering what would happen if the dog I encounter doesn't want to play.

But on the trails there were nothing but friendly dogs, and even a couple of white-tailed deer who ran off with their tails held high when I came near. I realized how much I miss the additional challenge that trail running presents.

But boy do my glutes hurt now after all those hills!