Confessions of an Ophidiophobiac

I don't know what it takes to qualify your fear as a legitimate phobia, but I'm pretty sure mine's the real deal. I'm TERRIFIED of snakes. Unfortunately, I spotted a couple on my river trail run the other day. TWO in one run. I had to come home and take a shower, and I still have the heebie jeebies from it. lol. (I laugh, but really this is no joking matter).
It's not like these were even rattlesnakes or some poisonous kind, they were just watersnakes (according to Jared. I'm not an expert on snake breeds, but it makes sense since they were next to the river). Here's how it went down.
Encounter #1: Running merrily along my way and see some girl walking toward me up ahead. It looks like there's something dangling from  her hands. I squint as I run closer thinking "no, it couldn't be", then sure enough... it is. I see it's hanging body wriggling and freak out and jump as far to the other side of the trail as I can. Now I have to point out this was some crazy Hot Topic teenager. No offense to any Hot Topic fans, but really what other kind of person would see a snake slithering along the road and decide to go pick it up and bring it with them?! Maybe she was planning on doing some type witchcraft with it. I don't know. I picked up my pace a little, and ran off thoroughly unsettled. About a quarter mile later...
Encounter #2: Still freaked out from encounter #1, a snake pops out of nowhere and slithers with superspeed across the road right in front of me. Ahhh! My skin crawls and I am so glad I am coming up on the end of the trail.

I get home and tell Jared about my creepy excursion, and he just doesn't get it. He describes snakegrass to me, and tells me that basically wherever there's snakegrass, there is snakes. His description is "tall grass, that is seperated in bunches, and has fuzzy type stuff at top".

Fast forward a day later to my next run. I am on edge, and keeping my eye focused alongside me for snakegrass. Much to my chagrin, there were about 15 variations of grass next to me during my WHOLE run, and they ALL fit Jared's description (After looking at this picture, turns out NONE of them actually were snakegrass). I was on pins and needles the whole time, expecting a snake to pop out at any given second. All the sudden I hear a rustle in the grass. I about jumped out of my skin. I look over to the left as fast as I can....and out pops a little quail. Though I was safe that time, I kept my guard up for the remainder of my run. Luckily I didn't have any more sightings.

When I returned home, I told Jared about how paranoid his snakegrass lesson made me, and my scary experience with the quail. He cracked up and said "I figured educating you would make you not as afraid". "NO", I responded, "there's a reason I have to close my eyes and flip the channel the second a snake comes on TV!"  Ignorance is bliss. He tried to tell me some mumbo jumbo about the snake being one of God's creatures. Lucky for him, I corrected him. "No, the serpent is a tool of Satan, and was cursed to have no legs".
"What are you really afraid is going to happen?", Jared asked. "Well that one will hear me coming, get scared, and try to go to the other side of the road really fast, but will end up landing right by or under my shoe, and get scared and try to bite me! Or that I'll step on it or something." These are the things I constantly live in fear of.
Jared maintains that even if I stepped on the snake it wouldn't bite me, but I'm not believing him for a second. He says the thing he's afraid of when I go on my runs is creepster guys. He said "Tell you what, why don't you wear a little fanny pack when you run with mace in it. That way you can use it on any predator that comes along and if it makes you feel better, you can use it on a snake if you see it." Genius idea! I don't even know what a snake would do if I sprayed it with mace. Would it even hurt it? Would it freak out and bite me? Hmmm maybe not such a good idea.
Until I figure out a better solution, I will just have to continue facing my fear every other day. Pray for me. And let me know if you can shed any light on this snake/mace situation. Now excuse me while I go jump in the shower.