The Doggy Incident

The plan called for my long run to be on Friday this week instead of Saturday because of my scheduled 5k. But Friday it rained all day. One of those soakers that just never let up. And, to be honest, I wasn't feeling 8 miles that day anyway. I really like Sundays as my rest day. It works best for me. But I decided to make it up on Sunday, so that was the new plan.

I haven't been doing my runs very early because it is so cold here in the mornings. So I figured I would get out there around 10ish. But as the morning progressed I realized there was just so many other things I wanted to get done. It was cloudy and windy. I was totally looking for an out.

Then I logged into dailymile to see how everyone else was doing on their long runs. I saw that Nora over at Nora Does Grandma's gave me a shout-out on dailymile saying how inspiring I was to her. Awww schucks....now I was gonna have to run that lousy eight. Besides, I'm kinda addicted to watching the little bars turn green as I add up my mileage for the week. I was at 15, but I wanted to be over 20. And today was the last day. So no more procrastination.

I begrudgingly got into my running clothes and headed to the trail.

About a mile and a half into my run is this big farm with a ginormous field. There are these two dogs that are always roaming around there. They usually leave me alone and watch me from a distance, but it still freaks me out a little. There is not a human in screaming distance, so I just imagine having to deal with rabbid, Pet Semetary-like monsters one of these days all by myself. (I think we've established my over-active imagination in The Scary Run post.) But, like I said, they will usually just perk up, take notice of me, and watch as I ever-so-calmly walk away. But inside is goes a little something like this:

Today I approach the clearing by the farm and hope, like I do everyday, that they are not there. Then I see these two black figures waaaaay in the distance running full-speed right at me. Oh my goodness! They are still pretty far off so I do a quick turnaround and slow things to a walk and move quickly and with purpose in the opposite direction of the attacking canines. I hear the jingling of their collars and the panting of their breath as they get closer and closer. I tried to remain calm. Stayed walking at a steady pace. And just looked straight ahead while I tried to mask my fear....'cause I hear they can sense such things. By now I am well away from "their" field, but they were still following me. I even heard one of them growl, but I didn't react. Straight ahead. Walk with purpose. Not afraid. Nice doggy. At one point they were so close that I felt the cold nose of one of them on my leg as he checked me out. Seriously too close for comfort. I was wearing my heart rate monitor and you should've seen that thing spike!

Finally, after a full five minutes, I couldn't hear them any more and I thought it was safe to turn around and look. They were both in the distance, pacing back and forth on the trail near their farm. It was as if they were warning me not to come back. I swung around quickly so I wouldn't catch their eye and just walked until I couldn't see them anymore. Then I ran back to the car, with only three miles logged on the Garmin. Boo!

After this Doggy Incident and The Scary Run, I'm just not feeling the love from my beloved trail anymore. But I decided that I would not be deterred and I would just drive to a different section of the trail and get my five miles in over there. Of course, then I had to go potty. There was a port-a-potty by my car. Its not like I've never used a port-a-potty before. But I live two miles away. It just wasn't happening.

Once I got home it started raining. Lovely. I waited a few hours and decided to get the rest of those miles in around the neighborhood. The bad thing about that, is that there is always a shortcut home. And around 3 1/2 miles I succumbed to the shortcut. My knee was bothering me and I've never had any pain in my knee before. I think it was just a little sore from yesterday's exposure to the hillyness of the forest preserve. But it was all the excuse I needed.

So I got in 7 miles of the 8 I was supposed to get in. But it certainly did not qualify as a long run. I'm bummed about that. But, it could've been worse. It could've been a zero.