As part of my training, I'm started running 2 miles 3 times this week. So on my first day in AZ (when I visited AZ for the Phoenix Marathon and Saturn meetings) I figured I would run from my Aunt's house (where we were staying in Scottsdale) to the main road and back. My aunt's house is in the mountains. So I first didn't think about the fact that I was running downhill for the first mile and uphill for the second. I walked a lot more on the way back but it worked out ok.

Then it happened...I could see the house (I was .1 miles from the end of my workout when a havalena (wild pig like poomba) walked out into the middle of the narrow road. I was warned, you see, that if I ran alone I didn't need to worry about the snakes because they are hibernating, not the coyotes because they would be scared of me, or scorpions / tarantulas because I would be faster than them. But I was warned about the havalenas that I had never heard of previously and never expected to see.  Now, the havalena may seem like this cute little guy, he wasn't - he was big and ugly - probably came up past my knee.

I quickly ducked behind a pick up truck parked on the side of the road and contemplated jumping into the bed of it. Then I realized that even if I got into the truck without hurting myself, I would never get out because my calves hurt so bad from 2 mile steep work out.

I peeked around the truck to see the havalena heading my way. My fight or flight instinct took over and gave me the energy to run away - more like sprint - back down the hill. I then had to call my husband to come and pick me up because I was too afraid of the wild pig.

He picked me up in our rental car and asked where it went?? He didn't see it on the way to get me. By the time we got back to my aunt's, the havalena was in her front yard right by the front door so we had to wait until it left before we could get out of the car!!

So, it seems my life is always an adventure, and it certainly makes for a good story.