rocks and ledges and snakes oh my

You know you are in the wrong place when your training group meets at a place called the "hill of life" Watching the mountain goat dudes sprint up and down the hill like its a suicide on a tennis court should really be a sign that you oughta run fast the other way. Sigh.
I didn't run fast the other way. I ran slowly, very slowly down the hill. So slow in fact, I got dropped before we got the start of our run. Then, as I proceeded across the dam all the high schoolers lit up cigarettes so I wouldn't smell their doobage. This leaves me puzzled, "When did I go from being the hot piece in the aviators and bikini with a joint in my hand to the overweight 30-something huffing (not puffing) through the woods like a cop?"
When I got to the starting point of the run (which I happened upon only because some late arriving members of our group showed me the way) my coach was shushing me. Puzzled I looked. Holy Shit! There was 6 ft+ long snake in the tall grass by the tree at the trail intersection. That was enough to get me outta there and started at a fast pace up the 3 mile loop.
The terrain on these runs is ridiculously harder. I probably had to walk 30% of my run because the ledges are just to hard to traverse. This hill of life stuff makes the dreaded loops at Walnut Creek (Marks Art!) look like the town lake hike and bike trail. I never saw a single person. I saw 3 more snakes. After my run at Buescher on Sunday and seeing the huge snake at the start of this run, I stopped listening to my ipod so I could listen for snakes because I'm pretty sure a snake will eat your kylie-minogue-singin ass!
The run was like last wednesday's run. Hot as hell, thru nasty terrain, and a loop on a hill. Uphill one way and down the other. My technical running skills have definately fallen behind since I missed the long run on Saturday. I will be making up for this by practicing on the Hill of Life tonight. Picking my way down the hill and walking back up it. Not really for speed, but just to get some mountain goat technical practice in before my long run on Saturday.
The whole second half of the loop I was angry and doubting. By the time I came upon my coach I was really feeling down, and asked him if maybe I should skip the race on 5/31 because I just wasn't ready for it. He said no way, you're not that slow and you just need more practice. I'll be used to it next week and ready to race on the 31st and he's probably right. The practices are harder, the race is harder, but if I put in the time it will be ok.