THUNDER!

"Yet again" at a new location, and new elevation of 5000 feet. I am not exactly in the rough and tumble mountains that I was previously in. Rather, a ridiculously hilly area that rises in all directions, in which, these hills will raise above 6500 feet in all directions.... Do you know where I am? These hills are also covered in 'dark' evergreen trees... now do you know?

My stay would only be for a few days, as me and a fellow teammate stayed with a 'runner' friend of his, cool kid btw.


As I ran in the new area that had a 100+ mile long trail within walking distance, "I liked it". Today was just like any other sunday, "long run day". My run was relatively simple today, 1 hour out on the trail, one hour back... 2 hours. As I scooted, strided, and trotted along at an easy 7 minute mile clip, crisp air, clear blue skies, a cabin here and there to my right, to my left, and of course, the standard chipmunk out and about.... "Yes", his name was Rodney, he had a family of 9. "Why 9?", I asked young peppy Rodney. Without hesistation, Rodney piped back, "To have a baseball team!... And a 10th is on the way for a pinch hitter!"



Back to the run, as I was closing in on 40 minutes out, I had a couple cyclists pass me saying, "FIND SHELTER, A STORM IS COMING!" Obviously, I did the right thing... I responded with, "Why thank you good sir, I will promptly find shelter."



Okay, that did NOT happen, in actuality, I said, "Cool man" (with a sarcastic thumbs up). "Yes", borderline douche, but I don't like to be bothered on a run. Personally, I just saw the cyclists as "tourists"... one of them had a "fanny pack". It's the 21st century... AND WE STILL HAVE FANNY PACKS!? "Yes", I will continue to rant here... Who still buys fanny packs?! Like seriously... how does it go when people buy these ornaments of... 'intellectually disable'ness'.... "Hey honey, do you think I should get the vibrant pink fanny pack, or just go ahead and put myself on suicide watch now?"

The answer: "MAN UP!"

Anyways, I charged forward and thought nothing of the warning given to me by "fanny pack wearing cyclists." A couple minutes before I hit 50 minutes, currently beep bopping to music on my 'new' ipod, I feel a cool crisp breeze come about. The kind you feel when the weather is getting ready to change... "huh."

As I come over a knarly hill, I see why I was warned to take shelter. A dense dark blue/black cloud, that appears to be coming in my direction... "huh..."

"Okay, this doesn't feel right, I'm heading back."

As the pace quickened, I 'tried' to outrun the on-coming storm. Did I believe I would? "Of course!" No longer trotting along, but throwing in surges, 1 minute hard, 1 easy, 2 hard, 1 minute easy, 3 hard, 1 easy, repeat again and again... trying to make a workout as I attempt to outrun a storm....

BEFORE YOU READ ANY FURTHER, PLEASE 'FULLY' TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR COMPUTER.... "Did you do that yet?"... "You still haven't... have you!?"... "DO IT!" 'ONCE' YOU HAVE DONE SO, PLEASE 'RIGHT' CLICK AND ADD THIS LINK I GIVE YOU AS AN EXTRA TAB AND LEAVE AS YOUR BACKGROUND MUSIC FOR THE REST OF THE READING.... THANK YOU, AND HAVE A NICE DAY... LINK > www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d7OBluielc

7 miles from home, it began to pour. When I say pour, I mean, "POUR"....as the Gods of rain showed no mercy. No longer being able to see anymore than a few feet in front of me, yet rain or no rain, I charged forward... unphased.

Then a new curve ball was thrown at me, lightning. Streaks of lightning came from all directions, striking the earth with an intense flash of energy, followed by a loud, "BOOM".

As the urban legend goes, or what I've heard, once you see a flash of lightning, every second you can count following it, is how many thousands of feet the lightning bolt is away (1 second = 1 thousand feet).

As I wondered how far the lighting was behind me. *Flash of lightning*- "One mississipi, two mississipi... seven mississpi... BOOM!" "Well, I am a 'whole' 7 thousand feet away from a bolt of energy that is 11-13 times hotter than the sun, GREAT!

5 MILES LEFT, *Flash of lightning"- One mississipi, two mississipi... 5 mississipi, "BOOM!" "FAAAANTASTIC, I have 5 thousand feet on the storm. "

And "YES", in case you were wondering, I said all of this out loud on my run... ALL of it.

3 miles left, GPS beeping, "5.02 last mile", "LET'S GO!!!" In case you were wondering... "Roughly 2000-3000 feet in front of the 'brilliant' streaks of bright energy that 'kindly' striked the earth behind me."

With 2 miles left, still having trouble seeing much in front of me, I subconsciously bring my hand up to my eyes to wipe away rain. As I do so, comes forth such a bright flash of lightning, "BOOM!" (So bright, that I can see the light through my hand). Well...hmm... judging by the burnt hairs on my right arm, I'd say, "50 feet", maybe "60"... yep.

As adrenline coursed through my body, soaked completely, I continue to move forward. At this point, that's all you can do. "You move forward". Whether this be another day to day life, work, or in my case, out on a run, you do the best thing you can do, make progress, cover ground, do work... basically... you "Move forward."

As I come upon my last few steps, flying inside the house, I storm in. Soaked head to toe, breathing hard, half covered in mud from the trail... my teammate sitting there on the couch, looks over non-chanlantly as I come in, "Hey man... I think it's sotrming outside...*pause*... just a guess."

Me: "It's perfect."

Also: www.youtube.com/watch?v=muLIPWjks_M

-clay j. mayes the 3rd