So that's October done. My final run this morning and I chose to invest my extra hour in getting up early, getting a paper and a coffee and driving up to the Edge...it was quiet. Just a few sheep, cows and dog walkers...the latter proving to be my undoing! Today was also the last in the WRC Summer Series. Halloween Hellraiser. I declined and headed for the woods, Hare Hill and the corn field. Climbing over the stile, I ignored the sign to keep to edge and embarked straight through.
I don't know why, I thought it'd be fun...until I heard the tractor! Sheepishly I ducked and waited, giggling quietly to myself and remembering days of trying not to get caught in the farmers fields around home. Not always successful. The sheep today seemed unusually interested in the passing folk. Stood there looking at me as if I'm the fool, running in the morning rain. Maybe, maybe not, but next it was the cows turn to express their views. Had there been a fence, where once there was, the grass may well have been greener, but this morning it was open season and the path was simply a means to getting to the fresh green stuff. They worked in pairs, one as a look out while the other scoffed. I waited, made my intention known, then had to get a little physical.
I'm cautious of cows, so pay them some respect by giving them a wide berth. But here it was tight. Finally the road block reversed up, we passed and both went about our business. And then it was the dog. The little f++ker. Three of them and a gaggle of disinterested owners looking like they were off trekking in the Himalayas. I run wide, you know, being polite and not wanting them to have to move off the path. My reward, a bite on the ankle. He came right at me, teeth showing and took a swipe. I kicked and shouted out...and got berated by it's owners. Thanks. Only a scratch, done worse in the bushes, but that's not the point. Aside from the fact that's my still defunct ankle, it was the positively retaliatory attitude of the owners. Trail Rage. 
I stopped up at the Edge and looked out, looking back 'over there' where I was a few weeks ago with Pete and Jason. I've not been up here at all in October. I've missed it. Tomorrow night on the Edge, Halloween, it'll be crazy. There is history and legend here. I will be elsewhere.
October has been challenging. My running around has been somewhat without focus or direction and hence overall unsatisfactory. Of course, I enjoy it, but it and I have lost a bit of sparkle. I hope it returns.
