I woke up before sunrise to run before an early morning tour. I’m no stranger to running in the dark, as I do that a couple of days a week before driving to work. I needed to keep my run streak alive by running each day on my trip to Belize. I ran up the dirt road toward the lodge entrance.
My headlamp lit the road well enough to avoid big rocks and puddles, but it was not enough light to squelch my imagination. I was sure that just beyond the edge of the road were animals – all the animals in the jungle – watching me. I pictured thousands of cartoon eyes staring out through the trees. I’m sure they wondered what I was doing, but I looked like a tasty morsel. I didn’t really think I would be attacked by a monkey or a bird, but I heard jaguars were nocturnal. I ran pretty fast that morning.
