And by crazies I sometimes mean bears. This past weekend my sis and I did our 10km with some lovely friends and family up in Whistler, BC and it’s the first time time in my life that I ever saw a real life bear without having some kind of protective barrier like a window, or door or zoo enclosure between me and its teeth. This bear was a baby bear and it just jumped out of the bushes right during the last portion of our North Face Whistler 10km and crossed the trail in front of us and someone yelled out “Where’s the mama?” and that was all I needed to stop in my tracks and turn around and run away screaming “BEAR!!!!!” at the top of my lungs.
You always wonder what you will do in a time of emergency or panic. I wish I had taken out my camera and pointed it at the bear and snapped a picture of this amazing scene.
But no. I am not calm or remotely rational at all. I apparently am a runner and a screamer and I ran away faster than I did this whole run and thankfully a friend chased after me and turned me around so I could run screaming past the area the bear vanished into.
Thankfully we survived.
And I think running is helping me survive.
Because there are always crazy ‘bears’ that disrupt regular life. There is family drama, friend drama, kid drama and life drama and as much as it would be nice to plan for this stuff like we do a run like a 10k or half-marathon, it so often just charges in unexpectedly, blatantly and challenges you to deal with it.
I’m learning that running gives me a way out. I put one foot in front of the other and I can think and plan and listen to my breath and my heart. Somehow running connects me to my soul and I often run when I have something to sort out and I come back refreshed and in control.
And now I have an experience where I’ve truly outrun a bear.
So I’m passing this on to my kids.
They ran the mini run.
And I think they’re hooked.
And lovely ladies who survived this run with me-lots of love forever! We’ll be doing this one again…..
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)