Are ET's Real?

I always thought, if ET's (extra terrestrials) exist, they have to have a special spot where there is a distortion of dimension....aka, a doorway for them to move freely in and out of our world with out being detected, a place where the laws of nature completely change, A place where they can play with our minds and observe our re-actions.

Well, I found a crack in our dimension, as we know it, right at Bradbury Mountain.
I realized Saturday why Ryan is afraid, I know now why Valerie avoids this trail, I understand why runners and bikers get lost and probably never found again.......There are ET's in the "OT" (the O trail!)....AKA..the Bradbury triangle.

The morning started out innocent enough. A group of us, Val, Jim, Erik, Lilly,BJ and Erik's sidekick...can't remember the runner's name but he ran on four legs and made the rest of us look like we were amature trail runners.

About a mile and a half from the start we settled into two groups, the fast guys ....then me and Erik, we weren't that far behind as we could see the front runners, but lagging none the less. He said he was taking it easy and I read that to mean he was saving some energy for the "O" trail.

The cool part was his dog, who had a lot more energy than the rest of us. I don't think he liked us being split as he kept running up to the front runners, passing all of them with ease, as if to say, "don't worrry, those guys are still back there." Then running back to us as if to say, "they are not too far ahead...hurry up!"
As much as he darted around, he never once got in the way.

By 5 miles or so, Erik was warming up pretty good and the lagging group became a party of one. I was a bit winded as we started out a pretty fast pace.....Jim was leading....need I say more? I think he get's talking and completely forgets he is running, so his legs just go crazy or something.

I had to stop many many times to clean the fog and sweat off my glasses. Being able to see the ground clearly in this terrain is very important as one plays rock / paper/ scissors, which in technical trail running translation means rock or root /trail runner / hit ground hard! So Rock/runner/ground.

The one time I actually thought I was seeing pretty good was the exact moment that
some troll or something grabbed my right foot and yanked! The rest of my body continued to propel forward and I found out that ground does win over runner as I landed pretty darn hard.

I think the worst part of falling is the humbling feeling a runner gets when the body is horizontal......It is not natural for a runner to be rolling in the dirt with a completely sweaty body. If someone was there at the time, I could see them asking that dumb question, "did you fall?" No, I decided to rub dirt all over my body to camoflage myself, that way no one would see me coming.

Luckily no one was there and so no one will ever know I fell. I decided to hide the evidence and found that my Nathan water pack works quite well as a makeshift shower and the water felt quite refreshing.....hey, I need to remember this!

So, problem number two, I brought some Ecaps because I knew it was going to be tough running the 12 mile loop in this humidity and I would need that suppliment. Well when I went to reach for it, it was gone! Somehow I lost the pill container. I could feel the need in my muscles and hoped the cramps would hold off until I finished.

I finally caught up with the group.....well they stopped to figure out directions....I am pretty sure we took a couple wrong turns and was re-affirmed this when my watch said 10.6 miles at the head of the O trail.

Jim and Lil did not hestiate one bit and turned left down the dark trail, Erik stopped long enough to give BJ directions back to the parking lot then chased after Jim and Lil. Val looked undecided she looked left down the trail, then right toward the finish, then left again. I think she decided that the O trail experience would be better left for another day and she joined BJ.

I felt a bit bewildered as my body was quite tired, I had no Ecaps, no gel packs yet I was drawn down the trail...I actully "wanted" to run it. This was an odd experience for me as I usually have to talk my self into a situation like this. Hey I already ran close to the 12 miles I planned, it would be very easy to just run the 3/4 miles back to the parking lot and go home feeling I accomplished my goal.

Instead I turned down the O trail fully expecting to suffer emensely. The O trail was surely created by the ET's and designed to fool our brain into thinking we are running in one direction while we are actually running in the totally opposite.

The twists and turns up over rocks and stumps and roots suck a runner into a trance like state. Suddenly you can not think clearly......I saw jim, lil and Erik off to the left of me appear out of nowhere, then just as quickly they apeared to the right of me like some hallogram ....was that really them?....am I halucinating? To think, I gave up a game of Golf to be here today!

I got to point where I was not sure I was heading in the right direction, the trail would veer sharp left when I thought I should be turning right.....once I turned left, I would be running right past a portion of the trail I passed minutes ago. As many times as I have run this trail, nothing looked familiar.

I suddenly realized that I could no longer hear Jim talking. This is crazy as I used the sound of Jim's voice to convince me I was still progressing and not lost in some other world. Now it hit me.....like the Bermuda Triange, the O trail would surely suck me deep into it's dark black hole...never to be seen or heard of again.

It made sense, the ET's have their portal here and they watch us and study our movements. This would probably be my savior as I was moving so slow at this point that surely they would be bored and discouraged. What fun is it to watch a fifty something year old trail runner moving so slowely that the sun sets with every left step, yet he is so stupid that he continues to follow the winding trail instead of cutting out many of the hundreds of hairpin turns to shorten the pain and the journey.

After what seemed like hours, I recognized a fallen tree and it apeared lighter up ahead....hey the end of the trail is close I either yelled or whispered! I found A tiny bit of energy deep down inside me and started speeding up.....if I hurry, perhaps I can make it out .....Maybe I won't be lost forever.

As quickly as my spirits lifted, they hit rock bottom as the trail darted left and away from the light.....I was sure that was the tree I remembered. After a few more turns, I saw a fallen tree....was this the same one? Were there more fallen trees left on purpose just to lift my spirits to again be stricken down?

This time the trail headed toward an opening, a bright light hit me square in the face causing momentary blindness. This was the end ....the end and the O trail spit me back out. I will live to run another day. I tried as hard as I could to get a kick going for the final 1/4 mile but honestly, it was quite pathetic as I labored to put one foot in front of the other, arms flailing around and basically no form at all... like a person being thrown in the water that had never been taught how to swim.

..... I just wanted to finish.....finish so I could stop running. I walked back to my truck, a bloody left knee, remnants of the dirty trail all over me, sweat pouring out of millins of tiny orfaces, still trying to catch up to my breath.....yet I felt good, I felt satisfied, I realized how much I enjoyed this run.

I love that O trail, I love knowing I beat those damn aliens .... I came out of the Bradbury Triangle alive..........alive and kicking ..... well not really much of a kick... SO...alive anyway.

12.6 miles 2:34:17
Bradbury Bruiser