I woke up this morning feeling just fine. I was planning on watching the Team Time Trial stage of the Tour de France, then going for a 20 mile time trial run of my own. Plans seemed fine until I got up at the end of church this morning. My neck was really stiff and it hurt to move. While walking home, my wife noticed how much pain I was in because I was looking with my shoulders instead of my neck.
When we got home, she checked me out, told me to stretch it, and then rubbed it a little bit. When she left for work, I was still in a lot of pain, but she gave me some Advil and set me up with the heating pad. After about a half hour, I could sit up again. It just so happened that the Tour stage was ending soon. I grabbed some lunch and finished watching.
I decided not to ride because it was hard to turn my head. I felt like trying to look for cars on a bike was a crucial part of living to see tomorrow. I figured I could still run, though, so I did.
I went out with no plan. I wanted to feel out the neck situation first. Once I started going, I didn't feel it so much anymore. I knew it wasn't feeling good so I didn't mess with it too much, but I felt ok. I ran down towards the high school which is now how most of my runs start. I noticed a trail off to the right that I've noticed before, but never wanted to go up because I'd seen kids coming out of there late at night. I figure that 1:00pm on a Saturday was probably safe. I made the turn, passed a grate in the trail, and ducked under a tree branch. All of a sudden, I'm in Narnia.
I swear to you, I've never felt so far away from civilization while civilization was literally footsteps away. The trail was wide and covered in roots. The trees around me were thick and lush making it difficult to see through them. I got to a Y in the trial. To the left was something that resembled a stone wall that went through a creek. I decided to avoid that and went right. I popped out on an athletic field and then noticed the middle school on the other side. Narnia was not very big...
I ran across the field and up a small hill to the middle school track. I took a jog around the track and then ran down another small hill into a field where they set fire works off on the 1st of July. While running along the edge of the woods, I notice another trail entrance. Back into Narnia I go. Squirrels and bunnies are running across the trail in front of me. I run across a creek, complete with stepping stones, and then the trail ends again, and I'm at the corner of two streets. Bummer. I ran up the street a little bit before turning around to find Narnia one last time. This time when I went back in, I found that same stone wall. I looked at it for a little bit before noticing that I could climb on top and run across it. It was about 3-4 feet wide and about 40 yards long. I jumped on top and ran across the entire wall. It was something else. I found my way back to the trail that I came in on the first time, and ran home with no more mystery or quests to speak of.
I mapped my run and found that it was 2.8 miles. Less than I had expected. I was out for about half an hour or so. I took it easy, I thought, but my sweat glands disagreed.
Maybe Narnia just makes you sweaty. I don't know. I never read the books.
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