Hungry Coyote

6:20 A.M.,Back Bay Trail, it's quiet, not alot of people are out yet, I'm with another non-runner and my 15 yr. old daughter. We're pumped- ready to get the last big run in before the Big Race. We start out down the trail. I love the early morning, it's cool out, the birds are chirping and I'm just getting warmed up and what jumps out of the brush and onto the path? Yep you guessed it-a hungry coyote looking for breakfast. There are no signs posted that there are coyotes in the damn back bay wildlife reserve. There is only about 2 miles of brush area on this trail and surrounding it are huge city buildings and crossing over it are loud freeways. I would never have thought there would be coyotes in there. Of course we turned and made a run for it and that was stupid because then we basically said "Hey catch us if you can" because he started trotting after us. We didn't know where to go or what to do. We grab our water bottles and a stick and turn to face it and right about that time 2 bikers came up the path and saw us just standing there with faces of full of fear and all we could do was point and stutter "there's a coyote on the path". You would have thought we told them there was a squirel because all they said was "Oh OK" and kept on riding through. Which made the coyote jump back back into the brush and then there we were again alone and now we don't know which side he jumped to. Thankfully there was a side path that lead off the trail and back to the main street we ran like hell for it and stayed on the main street until we passed all the brush area and could enter the trail down further. Needless to say, there will be no more early runs without our pepper spray. 
MN