An Unexpected Happening

I just had An Adventure.  I was going to run at the gym, but found it closed at 7:00, so I decided to try the track, because although outdoors (and hence in the rain), I thought it would at least be well lit and safe.  

Sure enough, it was.  The big lights were on because of a soccer game in the middle field, but the track was wide open.  So I buzzed along, in warmish weather, no rain or wind, feeling great, for about 2 miles.  Then the game ended, and people were kind of standing around in groups.  Eventually they left, and the lights went out, but no problem, the sky was still a little bit light, and the track is obstacle-free anyway.  I'm feeling great, and wondering if I should go ahead and do 5 miles, but I'm doing a long run tomorrow, so I figure I'll stop at 4.  I get a drink, walk for a bit to cool down, and head up toward my car.

And that's when I discovered that I was locked in.  Locked in!  To the entire stadium. I prowled the high fenceline, like a cat, looking for any opening that I could squeeze through, an unlocked padlock, a hole in the fence.  Nothing.

But no problem, because the light's on in an office, so I holler through the mail slot.  I can hear a radio in the background, and the maintenance guy's truck is still there, so there must be someone around with a key to at least one of those padlocks.  No answer.

My phone was very helpfully in my car, only a few paces away, on the other side of the fence.  I began to wonder if I'd be warm enough sleeping all night in just my fleece, starting out hot and sweaty, and would the bathroom floor or a stadium seat be warmer?  I wondered how long Karl would take to come and get me, and whether I'd told him specifically where I was going.  I wondered if I were able to flag down a car, could someone do anything anyway?

Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I climbed the chain-link fence.  I wasn't at all sure I could do it, but at least it didn't have barbed wire on top.  I wedged my toe into a hole and pulled, fairly certain that my wimpy upper body could not hold the rest of me up.  I hesitated at the top, thinking that as soon as I threw my leg over, I'd topple head first to the ground.  But my days of horseback riding kicked in, and I clung like a vise to the skinniest saddle I've ever sat on.  The scariest part was sitting on the top bar, hovering 8 or 10 feet in the air, hoping that if I fell, it would be on the grassy outside, not the asphalt inside.  Just before I swung my other leg over, it occurred to me to check to see if any part of my clothing was hooked at the top.  It was.  Then I imagined myself, hanging upside down from one hooked ankle, and hoping I wouldn't be in that position long before I was either found and released, in utter humiliation, or my pants tore and I scuttled home half naked in utter humiliation.

Thankfully, neither occurred.  I dropped lightly to the ground, and instantly felt like an uber cool, black-clad, cat-burgler, hot-shot, superhero!  Cue the Mod Squad music.  I'm hopping tall fences, no big deal.  Oh yeah.