Cook's trail: Racoon edition

I’m three for three with Sunday morning trail run adventures:
1) wasps
2) getting lost
3) today

The run started off normal enough. Matt and I went to Cook’s trail (current favorite trail because it’s long, flat and pretty. And I’d rather do my long runs on trails, than on the road. Feel like it’s better for my knees.) We get there good and early, and start to run at 7:44 a.m.

It’s not too muddy (it is a little muddy). Matt sees a deer. I don’t see it. We run to the halfway point. 4 miles. I get water. Matt runs while I get water.

We start back. My goal is 10 minute miles (this is a slow run for mileage.) We’re right on pace.

We get back to the car. I run some extra to get to eight miles. Matt stops. He’s done. My goal is nine today, so I head back for another mile. I give Matt the car keys so he can get water and snacks.

I’ve got my headphones in. I got bored around mile 6 or so. And I’m not even a 1/10th of the mile in when I hear noise. It’s digging and grunting, maybe some hissing. I look to the right and see a large raccoon.

AND this week, this story about a rabid raccoon biting a trail runner went viral. Several different people shared it on Facebook.

Not the raccoon I saw. They're not actually CUTE in person. 

So I see a large raccoon, a few feet from me and FREAK OUT.

1. I scream loudly. (I’m sure Matt can hear me.)
2. I sprint away. Pace: 6:20 mile. (which is not bad for having already run 8 miles)

I get at least a quarter mile before I decide it’s not following me (I decide I can probably out run a raccoon). I run .75 mile before I turn around to come back. I grab a stick and call Matt. (I’m hoping he hears his phone since he didn’t run with it.) He doesn’t answer.

I try to text him. Only my phone is covered in sweat. My hands are covered in sweat and there’s nothing to wipe my hands on because my clothes are covered in sweat.

So I try to call him again, only I hit facetime with my sweaty fingers. And the phone doesn’t want to facetime him, so an error message pops up. So it won’t call him.

At this point, I’m considering walking the three miles to Sandy Creek Park and have him pick me up there. I’m not walking past that murderous raccoon again. Is there another trail that goes elsewhere and I can meet him?

I tell Siri to call Matt and she actually calls the right Matt (yay!). I over emote how scared I am of this clearly rabid raccoon. He tells me he’ll walk back to where I am. I start walking, knowing that I’m quite a distance from the raccoon.

And I don’t want the raccoon to attack Matt. We don’t have time for rabies shots.

Matt calls me. Only to hang up. I try to call him back. Only to see him in the distance. He’s also carrying a stick. I think he’s amused that I’m carrying a big stick.

I was worried the raccoon got him. But he didn’t even see the raccoon.

If it ran off when I screamed, that’s a good sign (it’s not rabid.)

So I tentatively walk back, keeping my eye out for where I saw it. I don’t see another trace of it.

Matt actually calls for the raccoon—he wants to see it. I don’t! He keeps trying to tell me that raccoons are out in the daylight, and grunt and dig—this is normal.

But I barely got a glance at the raccoon (I wasn’t wearing my glasses and I glanced so quickly). It was probably two raccoons getting it on. Because of how big it was (two) and all the grunting?

So I survived. No one got rabies. I learned that I can sprint after an 8 mile run. And that raccoons scare the bejeezus out of me. It was yet another Sunday trail run adventure.