The Ol' Goat Wrench

I was looking forward to my Thursday run this week. I planned to take it outdoors no matter what the temperature, but I needed to get it done by 2:00 pm as it seemed that would be the time the snow would start to fall.

It never fails...the ol' monkey wrench. This time, I'd have to call it a "goat" wrench. Our goat Lola decided to go into labor yesterday and when we awoke this morning with no signs of any mini goat, we realized that a vet check had to be done. It ends up that Lola was way too young to become impregnated. As much as we adore our goat lady, she from whom we purchase our goats, we were cursing her this morning. The circumstances were grave. And the vet was quite certain we had already lost the kid. The trick was going to be saving Lola.

My girls sauntered off despondent and utterly crushed as the news was delivered and decided they'd rather not stay for the surgery. I stuck it out, turning my head at certain times when I wasn't quite sure my morning grapefruit would stay down. It wasn't so much the "yuck" factor, but the anxiety deep within that was making me quite nauseous.

But lo and behold, despite the emergency c-section, she delivered an unconscious, little, wet blob that somehow, by some miracle, we managed to revive. Yes, my morning was totally goat-i-fied. But truly, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

The first few hours weren't easy. We had to stay and watch them both. The morning was beyond my reach now, and I was still hoping to get that run in. The girls seemed to have control of the situation. All I needed were some nipples...goat nipples. My husband bought calf nipples this morning, and clearly, these would not do. I researched them and found them at a nearby farm store. I was hoping to get the hubster to do the fetching so I could do my running, but when I found the poor man, he was napping hard as a result of severe lack of sleep the past two nights. So, I made the journey myself.

As I headed up the drive, the snow started to fall. It was light. And I hoped it would stay that way until I got home.

I was determined to get this run in if it killed me. And it likely would have if I had waited a minute more. I situated the girls with the goat bottle, and got dressed at the same time. Two layers below the waist, three above as I usually do when the temperature is below 20°. Heading out the door was treacherous because the new layer of light snow made the ice extra slippy. Once I was passed the driveway, and the dirt road, the main road looked promising.

As soon as I stepped foot on the pavement, my iPhone died. Poo. I had no music, no gadgets, no Runmeter, and I didn't even get to put my new Road Noise vest to the test. I was disappointed to say the least. But to tell you the truth, it was a rather lovely run. The snow was falling lightly and all I could hear was the sounds of the outdoors. If it weren't so late, it would have been a perfect run. I'm pretty sure I turned around at about the 2.5 mile mark, and when I did, the traffic started to pick up, the visibility was dropping rapidly and it was  getting dark. I remembered that I had no phone with which to call home, so I had to just keep moving. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say I did 5 miles in about 45 minutes or so. In my book, that qualifies as a productive run. And I felt SO much better afterwards since I had not run since Sunday.

As of this hour, her name is Noelle. But I expect that to change. And this is the reason why I ran in the snow. A pretty good reason, nonetheless.