Running with…Coyotes?!

      4 Comments on Running with…Coyotes?!

A couple of nights ago, my husband and I were laying in bed talking, and suddenly I heard a weird howling sound.

“Who’s dogs are those?” I asked.

“They’re not dogs,” he replied calmly.  “They’re coyotes.”

Um, what?!

Yes, folks, I discovered this week that coyotes are hanging out in my neighborhood.  Now, I live in the country, so this probably should not be such a big surprise to me, but I just never thought we’d have them in our “farming” country.  We have much more open field than we have wooded areas.  My husband pointed out that they were probably near the creek a little ways down the road, which of course has trees lining either side.  That’s the same creek I run by three to four times a week, often in the wee (dark) hours of the morning.  :-0

When I voiced my concern, my husband assured me that coyotes aren’t apt to search out humans, and are most likely to run if they see one.  Plus, he added that they aren’t likely to stay in our area because there really isn’t much wooded acreage, which they seem to prefer.  I asked him if it was still a good idea for me to run in the mornings, and he told me I would be fine, and to just be alert.  He also gave me pointers on the off chance I encountered a coyote:

  1. Stand your ground and don’t run. Coyotes are like dogs, and any animal with dog tendencies will look at something that runs as something that is prey.  Plus, to a dog-like animal, chasing things is fun. 😛
  2. Be “big,” ie, be loud, wave your arms, and yell forcefully. They’re mostly cowards, and frighten easily.
  3. Find something to throw at them (like a rock). Their instinct is to flee from pain.
  4. If all else fails, use your pepper spray. (Gulp!)

Ugh.  I wasn’t overly excited about all that, but I decided I would just be alert and ready.  I went for an 11-mile run this morning and, while I would normally wait until it was light, I had to go pretty early this time, since we had to be at a hockey game for my younger son that was an hour from our house—and we had to be there at  10:30am!  I tell you, combining running and being a hockey mom is tough sometimes! (Side note: we were not on time. Thankfully the coach is a good guy and he only gave me a little bit of grief over it. You know, in front of all the other families. 😉 )

I started out when it was still dark, and the sky was beautiful, with so many stars!  I had looked up the sunrise time yesterday, and I did some research to get an idea of when I might actually be able to see my hand in front of my face.  I discovered that there are actually four factors involved in the sunrise: there’s the actual sunrise time, then there are Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight, and Astronomical Twilight.  I’ll let you Google it to keep from boring the non-geeks, lol, but suffice it to say that you can see pretty well about a half-hour before sunrise, and you can see some things about an hour before.  I got to watch the full process, from just after Nautical Twilight all the way to the actual sunrise, and I must admit, it was pretty amazing. 🙂

As I got close to the 4 mile mark, I came to be near a creek. I wasn’t all that close to it, but at the moment when it began to be surrounded by more woods, I clearly heard the unpleasant sounds of coyotes in the distance.  :/ That may or may not have contributed to an improved pace for that lap. 😛

I’m still training for a 2:10 half-marathon finish, and I ran the first seven miles at race pace (9:55), with the remaining 4 at a “long run” pace.

 

 

The weather was cool this morning, and I was happy to see that my overall pace was the best of any of my long  (7+) runs with the exception of the amazing 12-mile run I had right before Chicago.  I even stopped three times during the slower miles to take some shots of the sunrise.

 

 

 

 

It really was beautiful this morning.  That last shot is of the sunrise siloutting a very old (like 125+ years!) sheep farm in my neighborhood.

Despite those three stops, I still had a great pace and felt really good about my run.

 

 

Honestly, I felt good enough that I think I could’ve gone farther at race pace if not for one slight problem: I have a huge blister on my left arch. 🙁  It really hurt the last 5 miles, and there were points when I had to turn or make a quick veer across the road to avoid traffic that it was like stepping on broken glass. Ouch. Soooo…on the agenda today is new shoes for me!  I’ve been suffering for a couple of weeks, but didn’t want to spend the money on new shoes just yet. (Reference this post where I was forced to buy myself new tires as a birthday “present.”) But after today’s run, I’m ready to bite the bullet.  I’m torn about it all…I hate spending the money, but on the other hand—new shoes!! 😀

I’ll end with a few shots of my favorite subjects: my kids.  The first is Jamie during his run on Monday afternoon.  He’s running just once or twice a week right now to keep up with training for the 10k in November.  With so much football and hockey, I don’t feel we can ask more of him.  His run on Monday was good, but he was pretty beat at hockey and football this week, so I made sure he ran slow Friday.

 

 

He’s still keeping up with his training, and I’m so proud of him!

 

I talk about my second son quite a bit, and I’ve always referred to him as “DS#2” for Darling Son #2. (A common Internet message board term.)  I don’t like doing that, because I feel it diminishes his importance.  So, I decided today I would let him choose a pseudonym.  When asked him today what name he would like to be known as on my blog, he said, “Daniel!”  (Not anything close to his real name, lol!)  So, there you go…you may call him Daniel until he gets to an age where I feel comfortable publishing his name on the Internet. 😉

Here is a picture of Daniel from his hockey game today.

 

 

They won in a nail biter (3-1, with our third goal scored in the last 60 seconds), and I took about 550 pictures because it was one of the rare arenas where I can shoot without obstruction. I love that!!

Thanks for reading—have a great weekend!

4 thoughts on “Running with…Coyotes?!

  1. Jenn

    I am not sure I would want to come across a coyote in my neighborhood. I am glad you are at least prepared, if it would occur. Sounds like you had an awesome run, great job. Kudos to Jamie as well for keeping up his hard work – I don’t know many kids who would be able to take on football, hockey and running. And for “Daniel” many wishes for good hip checks in his future!

    Reply
  2. Dena

    hahaha…Daniel 🙂 I love it. Nice that you let him pick his own name 😉 Yes. Velveeta is the reason I haven’t given up dairy…pretty much sums it up!

    Reply

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