Running with the hound

I was running an easy 5 miler a few evenings ago and went by this house where the dogs are usually tied up. This time though there was a bassett hound like dog that came running at me barking. I picked up a wad of rocks to protect myself and he stopped and started wagging his tail. I knew then that he was friendly. I kept running and he started running alongside of me barking and jumping up at me wanting to play. I figured he would not follow me far but soon we were out of sight of his house and trotting down the road. His little short legs were working back and forth and his big ears flopping around. He settled into a nice pace running beside me and stopped bothering me. He was along for the ride.

After going more than a quarter mile or so, it was time for me to turn around. I turned around and he was right on my heels occasionally hitting my legs. I was tired and this annoyed me somewhat so I just thought to myself, let's put the hammer down and see what he does now. So I increased my pace from a easy jog to more of a moderate run. I didn't say anything, I just sneakily did it. He immediately noticed the change and it was getting hard for him to keep up. He barked and jumped at me even more now. I got the feeling he was saying slow down! slow down! The faster I ran the more urgently he barked and jumped up at me. He ran pretty good for a feller with short legs. Finally, I got tired of him jumping up and hitting me so I stopped and told him to get on home and kinda chased him up the road. He was a good boy and ignored me from then on. I waddled on home another 5 miles on the Garmin.

Well obviously I didn't blog any since March. There really wasn't much to say about this past year. Hmm.....maybe I could find a few things to talk about.

• My 61 year old Dad did 4 multisport events, three of them proper triathlons without having ever done one before. He also did some running road races.
• Let's see, my friend R ran his first race (Captain Thurmond's Challenge) and did really well while learning painfully about the art of pacing. He has also dived into the world of longer distances and is hooked.
• Over the past year my friend B has gone from barely being able to run 3 miles to doing 10+ mile runs and taken up kayaking.
• My friend KW ran 3 ultra marathons this year! A couple 50k races and a 50 miler! The bad part is that he has talked me into running a 50k in February!
  
• My friend S ran well in multiple races and organized one of her own. She even took up cycling.
• My friend KH started running seriously and ran his first 5k in October. He also learned a hard lesson about who you should not pace off of in your first race (the college girls cross country team).
• My buddy KA was the 4th fastest cyclist in a 10 mile race with way over a hundred contestants and missed being first by mere seconds and really helped us to a 3rd place male teams finish.
• My daughters ran a couple fun run races and had a really good time. All in all I'd say it was a pretty good year.