Yeah… It’s not good when your buddy losses his keys on the trail in the woods when its already dark!

Ohh…  Running is always and adventure around me… never a dull moment!  Sometimes I feel bad for those that that it also affects..  (NOT)

 So our nice little run started out at Balm Boyette at 6:30pm (Sun is still up) the plan was to run 10 miles at a nice easy and relaxing pace.    There wasn’t too much action the first 4.25 miles.  It was mostly talk about politics, women, and crazy @#$@ we have done.    

 All  of a sudden there is a huge rustle in the bushes up ahead of us and a giant boar fly’s across our path followed by a much smaller one.  Without thinking I yell “lets get’em” and take off in a full sprint after them…  it was a good 50 yard sprint before they got down a hill and away from me and then we spend the next 45 minutes talking about the warrior spirit.  (I think ill get more into that in a bit)

 Shortly before our turnaround of 5 miles (.2) before we hit a black diamond trail called Pandemonium, I am so glad Jeff is an adventurer because the trail went from nice and easy grass path to less than a quarter mile of extreme gulley’s surrounded by huge banana spiders everywhere above us…   I cant wait to check out the trail now on a longer run. 

 The 5 miles back to Jeff’s car few by, it was great conversation and beautiful scenery the whole time.  The biggest highlight was when it was still daylight and the sun was reflecting off the moon so well that there we both had a moon shadow when it was still pretty  light out.

 HERE IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS:

 We get back to Jeffs car and I grab my almost empty water bottle and empty it in my parched throat (10 miles and less I normally don’t do water stops) and he looks at me and says “S#!T”, “whats wrong Jeff”, was my response.  “I don’t have my keys”……   I laughed. “good joke buddy”.   And then I saw it in his eyes… he wasn’t joking.  It’s already pitch black outside in the middle of nowhere and we don’t have your keys..   “yep” he says!     

 Luckly there is a broken down trailer home nearby(yes its super scary at night) I went up and knocked and the door and then after the person came out looking like he was going to kill me, I politely asked for a flashlight as we go searching for Jeff’s lost keys… he laughed at us and said good luck as he handed us a flashlight with batteries that were almost dead.     

 We took off down the trail with only the moonlight and in front of us and large sticks (to catch the spider webs before we do) in our hands.  We jogged for every section that wasn’t covered with trees.  We did that for the first 2 miles because its super easy roads…   The next few miles were all crazy technical mountain biking sections that we had to tread carefully and watch out for new spider webs.    Thank God there were 2 possibilities where his keys could be!  And if they were not in either place we were officially screwed.  Right near the 4 mile marker Jeff stopped to tie his shoes and another spot is where he dumped his almost empty water bottle.  Lucky for us the keys were on the super dark, hilly, and full of spiders trail, right where he stopped to tie his shoes.

 To wrap up the story we finally made it back to his car with the keys (I asked him every mile if he still had them) we totaled 18 miles in around 4 hours and my body was totally exhausted from the 18 miler the day before and not having any water or snacks on this run…  but the great parts were… we kept everything positive and made it an adventure.   The biggest question that we had at the end of it was…   If each person in BRA was in the same situation with myself or Jeff…. How would they have responded..   J