A dog and a change of direction...

On Saturday I headed out for my run/walk. I was feeling pretty good, thinking I would do 11 minute intervals instead of the prescribed 10. I did my 5 minutes of warm up and then was 3 minutes into my first interval, when all the sudden a barking dog came running toward me. He stopped few feet from me. He did not want me running past his house. After a moment of sheer panic picturing bloody limbs, I calmed down and reflected that it wasn't worth trying to pass him, especially since I would have to pass back the same way. So I turned around and prayed that he wouldn't chase after me. As soon as I turned he stopped barking and sauntered back into his yard.


This kind of threw me. I hadn't mapped out where I would run heading south through town. I way underestimated my turn around time and had to run back past my home to finish my intervals, I turned around well before the dog's place though, which meant I had to go past my house again to cool down.

It was weird too, I had never seen this dog before. His apparent home is the next house after ours, but about 1/2 a mile away. We've drive past this house several times a week, and have never seen the dog since either. At first I thought he was a little vicious demon. I even cried a little as the adrenaline drained from my system and I felt shaken. Then I started to wonder. I had been considering running through town, but was too embarrassed. I had some concerns about the safety of running 2 miles in the country w/ only 2 houses, on a 55 mph road. I'd been saying it would be nice to have someone to run with, but never actually ran in a place where I might see someone else running. Makes me wonder if he was a little messenger dog, sent to make me turn around. Either way, now when I head out I am running south.