That Stinking Axis

I think the Axis of Evil is feeling threatened by me.

Our Tri Team had a brick workout last night, and I did a 5-mile run with the Axis of Evil. About 3 miles in, I was about 30 yards behind (waiting to make my move and zoom past them) when I noticed a disturbance up ahead. In a grassy field, right where the Axis was passing, a dog and a skunk were battling it out. The dog would chase the skunk with the dog's owner screaming at him to come back; the dog would turn around, then the skunk would start chasing the dog. Then the dog would chase the skunk again. And so on and so on. The skunk's tail was fully raised- I didn't realize how tall a skunk looks when he's locked-and-loaded.

The dog chased the skunk on to the trail between me and the Axis of Evil. I had a choice of continuing to run straight towards the skunk in an attempt to catch up, or stop dead in my tracks. I chose the latter. Unfortunately, there was a chain-link fence along the trail so the skunk couldn't escape into the woods right away. Instead, the skunk ran along the fence - towards me - while still being chased by the dog. Every now and then the skunk would turn around towards the dog and I thought I could make my move to get around him, but then he'd come back at me.

Eventually the skunk found a hole in the fence and ran away, but by that time the Axis of Evil was long gone. I think it's a dirty trick that they would foil my run by throwing a skunk at me, but I will get them next time. (* shaking fist in the air *)

(Truth be told, I was looking for ANY excuse to stop running for a bit at that point. So I was more than happy to catch my breath. Even if that breath smelled of skunk.)