The Michael Myers bush

You know that bit in the "Halloween" movie where Jamie Lee Curtis looks out of the window and there's Michael Myers standing in the front yard across the street? Creepy, right? Well when I first started early morning runs around my neighborhood several years ago I too had my Michael Myers moment.

At the far end of my loop there are no street lights and it can be incredibly dark. Bear in mind this is 4am, the neighborhood is deserted (one of the reasons I like the early mornings) and all sensible folks are tucked up in bed. This particular morning, as I came round a bend, there in one of the front yards was a tall figure. Just standing there. Staring at me. Thoughts started cascading though my head - psychotic knife wielding lunatic, imminent horrible demise, damn I was running really well too. Scared? I just about screamed like a schoolgirl!!! Of course, on second glance it turned out to be just a tall thin bush which left me feeling not a little sheepish. That was the morning I learnt that you can get still get cold chills while running in Texas.

So it was christened the "Michael Myers bush", and it still got me for a few runs before I adopted it as a landmark on my usual route, alongside such luminaries as "badly directed security light", "plastic duck yard" and "New Orleans house".

I ran the route this morning and it was a strange run. I started out feeling stiff and sore, and my legs were tired. I did a pretty hard leg workout last night so I'm not that surprised, but after about a mile all the tiredness faded away and I started to feel good. In fact, the further I ran the better I felt and by the last loop I felt great. The only thing holding me back was Charlie (my dog). I guess since I stopped running the neighborhood regularly he's gotten a little out of shape because he was breathing pretty heavily by the time we got home. Nancy even asked me "what did you do to the dog?" The strange thing is, if I got up to go run tomorrow, he would be as excited and ready to go as he was this morning.

Odd random fact - I've run this well-worn 6 mile route three times in the last two weeks and each time I've run exactly the same time - to the second. What are the chances?