Dogs, Dogs, and More Dogs

This morning, Tim and I headed over to our group's Saturday morning meeting place. Tim wanted to run 9 and I wanted to run 16. We started together, and then I moved forward to catch up with some of the others. It was a typical Saturday run - faster pace, flat course, beautiful landscapes (sunrise, fields, mountains, river), right up to the point a pit bull and some other kind of dog came charging out at us. What the heck! This is the third time in the past month that part of the group has been charged, so it isn't just a freak accident that these dogs are out. They hide behind the wall of their house, and come at us just as we make the turn. It is very scary. I really believe that if someone was alone, or just with one other person, the dogs would attack. Today, there were about 12 of us, and a couple of guys picked up rocks and threw them in the general direction of the dogs, but sheesh, it was still pretty scary. I got attacked by a German shepherd when I was 10 years old while I was walking home from school, and I have never gotten over the fear. I rarely have any kind of problems when I run alone, but there sure seem to be a lot of loose dogs. I carry mace when I'm alone, but I'm afraid I'll die of a heart attack before I have a chance to use it!

After we got away from the Hounds from Hell, we encountered another group of three loose dogs. At this point, we were all a little skittish, but these turned out to be super friendly. So friendly in fact, that one (a cocker spaniel) followed us for the last 12 miles of the run. We couldn't get him to go home! It was fun to have the company, but stressful because he kept wandering into traffic. I wasn't wearing a fuel belt, but I told Luis about Tim using his as a leash the last time. This worked, and we were able to keep the dog safe until we could get to a phone.

It was a nice run, temps in the mid 50s, and sunny. We kept a pretty steady pace - I'm guessing about 8:15 - 9:00 - with a few faster bursts here and there. Afterwards, we had burritos - the best part - and set our schedule for tomorrow. Salvador is getting ready to go run the Sahara in that 6 day stage race, so we are going to run 26 tomorrow. Tim and I are going to a dinner party tonight, and it doesn't start until 8:00 pm. What! Do people still stay up super late? If I'm not in bed by 9:00, I feel sleep deprived! I hope I get at least 5 hours of sleep, or I will be a mess tomorrow. Kinda strange that I love 24 hour races when I can't stay up past 10:00 the rest of the time :) Anyway, I took my rest day on Thursday and then cross-trained on Friday. This week I should be at about 90 miles. I was hoping to hit 100, but leaving town on Thursday kind of messed me up. Oh well, since I still don't have a Spring race picked, there's no point in going crazy!

Hope everyone is feeling good and getting excited about Spring racing!