Something new...

I've been trail running with Rik the past few weeks. He even got me a special pair of trail shoes (sometime talk to him how much he loves his trail runners! :p)! There are some new trails a bit west of us and it makes me really humble to not be able to do this well. I've managed to fall down and scrape up my hands and knees pretty well (stupid rocks) and let my legs scream until I can't feel them anymore. I apologize every few minutes to Rik for slowing him down - because I am slow and I know that he is LOTS faster out here. I did get smart the past couple of times and wore padded bicycling gloves to protect my poor hands - but of course, the rocks haven't been in the way those times either. Maybe someday I'll make it up that huge hill without feeling like I need to walk, or that I really can breathe, or that I'm not going to be sick at any moment. It sounds weird, but I look forward to going, have the "why am I doing this" thoughts through the middle (mostly going uphill), and am grateful that I went when I am done. And maybe I won't almost step on any rattlesnakes again either - this happened last week and boy, those snakes sound A LOT louder in real life than in some movie! (Yes, while this desert rat had seen snakes out in the desert, but they had never rattled at her before.)