Running For Our Lives

So if you didn't notice, about 3 months ago I had a baby.  haha. You totally noticed. What comes with having a baby is having extra baby weight. Bleh. Everyone tells me I look great and that I don't even look like I had a baby. But I was about 13 pounds over my pre baby weight. So, it was nice to hear, but very untrue. So Travis (who actually also gained some "baby weight") and I decided to make a goal. We're going to run a half marathon this September. Boom. That'll take care of the extra pounds. We've been running four times a week for about a month now. At first, I couldn't even run 10 minutes without stopping. It killed me. But now I'm feeling strong and we're running more and more. Working out is exciting. Going from the worst shape of my life to getting stronger and stronger is exciting. We've also been drinking protein shakes and smoothies everyday as well. So we're kicking our butts back into shape. I've lost 3 pounds and Travis has lost 6.

But it's not all flowers and rainbows. Every day we're risking our lives when we run. Let me explain.

We're so blessed to have a beautiful running path near our home. (Or so I thought.) We run this path every day. It's so green and lush. Here, take a look.

See, isn't it lovely? So I thought we were so blessed. And then we started running into wildlife.

Scary, huh? Okay. Not quite. It was actually really fun coming upon my turtle friend. But then... we came across THIS:

I almost stepped on that booger. It was like 5 feet long. Gee wiz, golly wolly. Definitely gave me the heeby geebies. So when we got home we looked up what type of snake it was. We were sure (mostly me) that it was super poisonous and that we were super lucky to have survived such an encounter. Well, turns out it's just a harmless water snake. Harmless? I don't think so. Even if it's not poisonous, it's a hazard. It almost tripped me. See how much that dude is poking out into the path. Yeah, still dangerous. haha. I still feel like we risked our lives that day. And now everyday since when we run on the path. But you gotta do what you gotta do, ya know?