My personal run for freedom

Ok, so I told you that I would post about Ultimate 5k 2.1 and here it is. July 4th was a busy day for us as we had a good bit of errands and 'honey-dos' to get done as well as prepare a few dishes for the cookout later that afternoon. I decided that it would be a good idea to go ahead and get my run in 'early', and on the 3rd day of a 3 day weekend early came about 7am. So I got up strapped on my tune, laced up my shoes, and grabbed Addison (my trusty, 4-legged trainer) and headed out the door. Usually I run on the streets of our neighborhood and that gets the job done fine, today I decided 'it's not too hot, the sun's up I'm going to run around the pond/lake at our neighborhood 'it'll be a nice change of pace'. So I started out doing my thing and the first couple times around the pond no problem. As I was turning to make my 3rd lap around I came up behind a couple walking with their baby in a stroller. 'No big deal' I tell myself, I'll just go around them so as I start to make my way around them on the left side the woman stops and swings her stroller to the left. I have to stop and nearly run over Addison and tweak my ankle a little bit to keep from form tackling this woman and her baby. I stop myself and Addison and at this point no one needs to go to the ER. As I attempt to pass them on the right side of the side walk the man decides this would be the appropriate time to adjust the tightness of his shoe laces, so he stoops down to make the modification to his laces. Once again I throw on the breaks and stop myself. Now I'm not kidding anyone, I'm no Hussein Bolt, but when you get a freight train rolling at 2 mph you still can't stop it on a dime. So I avoid the couple and stroller booby trap. I make my way around the pond on my 3rd lap and as I'm on my final back stretch I notice a woman who appears to be in her late 50s early 60s, probably 120lbs soaking wet, walking a Newfoundland Hound that easily outweighs her in triples. It's warm outside and the small horse is no doubt hot, so what does this 'responsible' pet owner do, she walks down to the edge of the water and lets him get in the water. Awesome, we do this all the time with Addison, the difference here is that we keep Addison ON THE LEASH!! I see this massive whale of a dog in the water on the other side of the pond thinking to myself 'ah, no big deal he's all the way over there'. I learned a new lesson that day; small horses can swim really fast. That beast was over to our side of the pond in no time and was attempting to have his way with my little 35 pound wheaten. At this point I pull my earbuds out and hear this brittle old woman yelling 'come back sweet pea, come back' in about the most calm and soft voice you could think of; imagine your great grandmother reading you a bed time story, voice. I have two thoughts in the moment, punch the dog in the nose and send him scurrying off; which I wanted to do but his owner was in view and I didn't want to deal with that. So I enlisted our second option, RUN!! Addison and I took off in a dead sprint, which is great fun at the end of a workout, and we hauled it. Someone else came over and grabbed the mammoth of a dog and stopped him from his lustful pursuit of Addison. As I got near the woman she said 'I hope you and your dog are ok' to which I politely replied, 'yes man we are fine, but you know our neighborhood and the city of Denton have leash laws', 'oh yes son I know, and he has a leash on'. I didn't have the heart to tell her that a leash is only effective if there is some form of resistance on the other end of the leash. So we made our way back to the house where we both crashed for a few minutes before I got back up and began the rest of my to do list. I didn't anticipate all the antics of the morning but all in all it was a good run, it was a tough one being that it was my first back after 3 days off. I did however, feel like my legs are getting stronger and my cardio endurance is increasing. Maybe with this obstacle run I'll be ready for the spartan run my cousin Todd is doing in the fall.

'Never give up, never surrender'

Drew