It’s raining.
Woke up at 4:30 this morning and heard the spray of rain coming off the passing cars. <sigh> What’s going to happen to my November Resolution! So far the rain has been fairly light, hope it continues to be light or even better stop for tonight’s run. My faithful companion Cooper never seems to mind running in the rain, I need to borrow his attitude. We’re still adjusting to the new Gentle Leader Head Collar, he’s cooperating much better when we’re out there running. Occasionally he will suddenly turn into a mule and we have a tug of war battle until he decides to keep going with me. He’s also got to learn to shorten his stride. I can’t keep up with him and the last time I ran with him I was tiring but kept running and as we were running down a hill I uttered a grunt trying to pull his weight back so that I wasn’t doing another Superwoman dive and sticking the landing face first into the street.
The new Bikila Five Fingers are working out nicely. Still looks odd to glance down and see those things on my feet. I felt a sore spot on my left foot and stopped briefly so I could make an adjustment. The stitching inside the shoe irritated my foot and rubbed, giving me a blister which popped and bled a little. Nothing that will stop me from slipping my toes in, wiggling them around (my toes need trained to go into the proper slots) and adjusting the straps (and the pinky toe is getting better but still a little swollen). Adjustment made and back running.
As Mickey and I were running with our dogs, we both observed the reactions of people as we jogged by. Most people smiled, a couple of guys stood watching and as we got within ear shot asked, “Who’s winning?”. I replied that the dogs were but it wasn’t a fair race because they used 4 legs and we only had 2. Mickey and I continued on and made a turn up one of the streets of Annville that had a hill for us to run up. As we were running up the hill, I saw an older man standing at the top of the hill. He watched us run and as we got within earshot commented, “You should run somewhere flat, that hill is too much for the dogs.”, I refrained from commenting but couldn’t help but wonder if he had a dog and if he did, did the dog have a beer belly like him?
If you could see Cooper’s excitement when I change into running clothes and pick up the Gentle Leader Head Collar you’d see he loves it. I’ve seen Cooper run up the mountains in Colorado and I’ve seen the excitement and joy he has when he can run free. The little hill in Annville was nothing compared to those. I think I’ll be hanging out with Mr. C a lot more than the older man on the street corner, he might drool on me, drop a gross, wet tennis ball in my lap, wake me up in the middle of the night when he has gas, but he’s a positive running companion. I have yet to hear it’s too windy, too cold, to hot come from him. I’m learning a lot from my dog.
The rain won today, I could have run on the treadmill but somehow the desire to run disappeared. NO, I’m not giving up, just waiting for the return of dry weather to get back on the asphalt with my dog and running friends.
