The plan was to litter this week’s blog entry with tales of wild runs through Yosemite National Park, where my husband and I decided we would take Baby for her first big trip she won’t remember. Having to accommodate a wardrobe of baby clothes/things for every scenario imaginable dwindled the amount of running gear I could pack to shoes, a sports bra, and swimsuit bottoms I hoped would be “good enough.”
While crammed in coach with my fellow peasants, I peppered my flight with daydreams about zipping through the early morning wilderness and fitting several sunrise miles in before Baby woke from her Pack N’ Play. I felt my identity as a runner break through months of my main identity being “the one with the udders,” thinking about how only runners spend this much time planning how they’ll get a run in on vacation.
When we arrived to our first night in Yosemite and the 4.5-hour flight of wrestling Baby—who maintained the squirminess of a dolphin throughout—was behind me, I went to bed with my running clothes set on the dresser for noiseless access the following morning when I would complete a fulfilling, there-and-back scamper to Muir Lake (about 1.6 miles up a nearby trail).
The next morning, I set out as soon as the sun touched the ground with enough light for a couple hotel guests to see me trip and fall over my own feet before I reached the trailhead. On the trail, I settled into a pace that I was unreasonably confident could take me through the whole park if needed. Despite feeling like my training had been inadequate up to this point, I now felt like I had it in me to run through the whole park if necessary.
Then a mother black bear and her cub crossed the trail about 30 feet ahead of me. Having seen what bears did to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, I thought it would be a better idea to turn back than to keep going. I had a baby to feed.
Total Miles: 0.75
Before becoming a mother, I think I would have been dumb enough to keep running after seeing those bears. It’s likely they would have continued on their way without incident, but even the slight chance of Baby remembering her mom as Runner Eaten by Black Bear: All That Was Left Were Her Swim Trunks makes me not want to risk it. So, I turned around and ran the other way until I hit 2 miles.
Only 24.2 miles to go!
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