My Unlikely Running Partner

My Unlikely Running Partner

I met a friend on the road this week—a jackrabbit.

It started Tuesday. I was a mile or so into my run when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye — long legs, longer ears, and that unmistakable jackrabbit lope. He fell in alongside me for a few meters, like he was pacing me, before ducking off into the underbrush lining the dirt road where I run. I laughed out loud, alone, on a dirt road, at 6 a.m. No regrets.

Thursday I was out early — earlier than usual — and there was no sign of him. Fair enough. Even wild running partners have their own schedules.

Friday was a long one. 5K, legs already tired before I hit the halfway mark. I didn’t see him on the way out, and I figured Tuesday might’ve just been a one-off. But on the return stretch, there he was — sitting at the top of a rise in the road, perfectly still, the sunrise catching the light through his pink, translucent ears like they were lit from the inside.

He waited. He actually waited, right up until I topped the rise, and then he took off alongside me again for a few yards before peeling off to handle whatever business a wild jackrabbit has to handle before the day gets hot.

My legs are still sore. I’m going to be back out there before sunrise anyway, because apparently I have a running partner now, and he doesn’t seem interested in rescheduling.

(Half of me wonders if it’s just a jackrabbit. The other half wonders if it’s Vitier, keeping an eye on me in disguise.)

Onward,

~HKP