Good morning Hissssss: I would have normally relegated this post to the Marathon Blog, but this incident deserved special mention. At 4:45 today morning, me and three other runners had begun our day’s practice in the greenish campus of Anna university. This early, it would have been pitch dark if not for the powerful sodium vapour lamps that dot the avenues inside the campus. We had settled in at a nice rhythmic pace of running and in between the puffing and panting were indulging in small talk ….when all of a sudden, right in our path, came a slithering snake. I mean, it was so close that one more step and one of us would’ve come in striking distance of this reptile. You should have seen our reflex action …briliant. We all split in various direction in a split of a second. All this happened in a flash but we just had enough time to note features of this really long snake … easily more than seven feet and dark black with shiny scales. The incident knocked the breathe out of us… but what it did very successfully was shake us out of any sleepiness that was sticking in us. We continued the practice …now really awake !!