My first TriFusion headlamp run!

This was no doubt the MOST FUN I have ever had on a run. I had the worst cramp the whole time, but it wasn’t from improper breathing technique, it was from laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe!
To start with we all met at Kirk Wood-Gaines home, where we had the pleasure of meeting his wife Susan for the first time. Roger let Kevin and I borrow two of his headlamp’s (picture above) since he was injured and would not be able to run with us. We all bundled up and headed out the door about 7:15pm for a 10 k run. It was dark, about 34 degrees and so foggy that it was difficult to see the edge of the paved road and literally impossible to see more than about 20 feet in front of you.
We all (Sam, Kurt, Jessi, Kathi, Natalie, Kevin, & Jennifer, (Kirk was suffering from the aftermath of food poisoning and Roger was nursing his twice sprained ankle) started out in a pack, we were huddling together trying to keep warm. About a half mile into the run Sam says, hey did anyone hear the News tonight? We all said no, so Sam proceeds to tell us that on Channel 2 News they reported that they found a dead body the previous night, on the very same road that we were running on! We are all like, Sam are you being serious?? And Sam is like yes, they said 2 guys beat him up and left him for dead, wrapped around a tree and stole his car. All of us girls freaked out and start talking about how we should stick together, and how each one of us would never go running on this road at night alone, on how we hate scary movies and bad guys etc.

Suddenly Sam starts running around like a mad man screaming into the bushes, yelling out to the bad guys and daring them to come out and how if they did he would kick their butts, we were laughing so hard as he was running around acting like a gorilla. Suddenly Sam surges ahead of us all and as he bolts ahead, we figured he was doing some kind of interval work (over achiever) or something? Anyway it wasn’t long before his cute buns disappeared into the fog ahead of us.

We continued to run and talk as a pack, getting warmed up and settling into a pace that worked for the entire group (except Sam). We were listening to a story from Natalie, listening intently, trying to hear every word over our own heavy breathing, concentrating on not missing a single detail. Simultaneously we all blurt out blood curdling screams, as Sammie jumps out from the darkness of the bushes screaming like a mad man. We stopped dead in our tracks to catch our breath that fright took away and then we start yelling and laughing and yelling and laughing some more; Sam you bleep, Ha Ha, bleep bleep you Sam, Ha Ha, bleep, laugh bleep bleep!!!!! As this drama echoed out into the darkness, we couldn’t help but be afraid of what else lurked out there. We were on guard and on alert for the slightest sound that wasn’t part of our group.

About the time we had all recovered and regained our breath and running rhythm, we see car head lights coming up behind us, as we moved to the side of the road to let the car go buy, we recognized that it’s Roger in his Subaru. With his car headlights behind us we have significantly better forward visibility, so he followed slowly behind us to light the way, it was great to have this helpful and attentive support. Roger followed us all the way to the turn around, where we thought we might meet up with Sam, but didn’t so we figured he went across the bridge to get in some extra miles in with his Seattle Marathon coming up.

On the way back Nat, Jessi and I got separated from the rest of the group and we had this creative genius thought to pay Sam back for scaring us so badly. We searched out the perfect spot to hide in the bushes, and the three of us got down on the ground like an Army Soldier in the trenches and waited quietly until Sam ran buy. As he approached, we were holding back our giggles and covering our mouths to muffle our heavy breathing. Here Sam comes and I am like wait girls, lets wait for the perfect time, here he comes, the tension is building inside us, oh my gosh, here he comes, he is right in front of us but, waaaaait…… we were going to wait until he got just passed us and then we would jump out and scare him, our hearts are racing! As Sam runs directly in front of us, we are about ready to explode with anticipation of the surprise attack and suddenly Sam turns his head lamp and shines it right on us and yells Booooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Wow aren’t you scary!!!! We screemed, laughed and then felt slightly disappointed that our sneak attack backfired on us but we quickly joined him back on the run.
Roger decides to come up along side of us in the Subaru (I think it was killing him not to be running with us) instead of following from behind, and he rolls down all his windows and opens his back tailgate and blasts his music from the car. We are laughing and singing and thinking it should be illegal to have this much fun while running. What a hoot, there were actually several neighbors that came out on their front porches to see what the commotion was and we are like, Hey, this is Tri-Fusion Support baby!!!!!!!!! WhooooooooAhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now cruising back, getting into the music and some amazing conversation with ourselves and with Roger, laughing at the reactions of the various neighbors, rocking out to good tunes, enjoying the fun of the run. Roaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! When we were least expecting it Sammie comes up from behind us and truly scared the poop out of us, again!! Jessi literally went to the ground, as she was gasping for breath from laughing, screeming and yelling at Sam all at the same time!!!! It was Hilarious!!!!! I think Sammie even scared Roger, I saw Rog swerve the car and regain control just before he went into the ditch!!!!!

We were now about ½ mile from Kirks house and when we finish the run we were invited to go inside to warm up and commiserate a bit. Thanks to Kirks wife Susan and his adorable daughter Anna we enjoy some post run fluids and Pretzels, those pretzels tasted sooooo good!

Thursday nights are typically a family night for the Best’s, however both kids had plans this night and so we decided to participate in the run. What an awesome memory for Kevin and I with part of our Tri-Fusion friends. We will look forward to our next open Thursday, you can be sure it will be spent at least in part doing the Tri-Fusion Headlamp run!!!!!! This group event is a great tradition, thank you to Kirk and Susan Wood-Gains for hosting and opening their home.

P.S. My sweet husband surprised me the next day by purchasing us our own headlamps. These are so cool, I look forward to the next opportunity to turn mine on!!!!!!