Invisible Woman

When I awoke Friday morning, I felt like the crap had been beaten out of me. Since I was fairly confident that I hadn’t been assaulted the night prior, I blamed the chicken veggie fajita I had for dinner. Regardless of the source, it was an easy decision to stay in bed that morning. I knew the weather for the day wasn’t predicted to be too hot, so I figured I’d run after work, before heading out to the Camden River Sharks game that evening. I headed out to do the initial loop plus a little extra at Tinicum. Seebo had informed me that turtle season appeared to be over. That, combined with the mid-day timing of my run, I didn’t hold out much hope for seeing any wildlife.

I started out doing the interesting part of the loop and felt good in my running. Afternoon runs aren’t typical for me and I was enjoying the novelty of running while actually awake. I was having a good time finding that precarious balance between speed and safety as I ran the narrow and overgrown-in-places trail. Shortly after crossing the second bridge, I saw two people up ahead on the trail. They were just kind of standing there. Was someone hurt? Their posture was unusual. They weren’t walking. “If someone is hurt, I should definitely stop,” I found myself thinking. But it didn’t seem like anyone was hurt. The man seemed to be…. Oh wait…. Oh my… Nope… not hurt… definitely not hurt. I’m amazed they don’t seem to see me – am I that swift and silent of foot? The invisible woman. Shouldn’t one of them be on ‘look out’? As I got closer, I could not believe they were just carrying on – and REALLY did not see me or hear me coming. “Eyes forward, Rebecca…. You’re just gonna run on through,” And that is exactly what I did. Sure, it would have been priceless to see their faces as I went whooshing past, but I just couldn’t bear to look. I had seen enough already, trust me.

I finished the ‘interest part’ of the loop (now, truly having earned its moniker) and did the quarter mile (or so) stretch from the top of the initial loop to the bottom of the second loop and doubled back to do the boring part and then head on home. On my return trip towards the boring part, I saw my two new ‘friends’ headed towards me. Normally, when I see fellow runners out on the Tinicum trails, I offer a friendly smile or hello. But I wasn’t sure what the protocol was in this situation. Of course, part of me wanted to give them a wink and a thumbs up for gettin’ a little outdoors action, but instead I settled on a ‘knowing smile’ that I think effectively communicated something like: “Yes, I just totally busted you two with your naughty bits hangin’ out, but hey, it’s cool and good for you.”

Compared to all that, the rest of the run was uneventful. 5.6 miles in 50 minutes.