Karen writes: Sharing my run

Now that the training is tapering off, it was time to take the dog for a run.  Usually I leave her at home when I am training, she is a sweet little foxy crossed with something unidentifiable, and I have to say, a bit of a coward.  If another dog barks or comes near she has been known to wrap herself (with lead) round my legs, which isn’t a good thing when out running at any sort of speed. She also doesn’t like cars, or noisy people, and doesn’t have much sense of which side of a pole or tree she should run on. The other thing about running with the dog is that when I am doing really long distances on narrow country roads it just isn’t fair to take her along anyway, especially in warmer weather when there aren’t those convenient drinking puddles along the way.

So yesterday, she was all excited to have her halter and lead put on, and we headed off up the road with great enthusiasm…for a while.   I thought perhaps she was tired, poor little thing, hasn’t had much exercise recently… until we turned round and started heading home.  She was then so enthusiastic there were people laughing at me as we ran up one of the big hills in Maraetai, it looked like Pippa was pulling me up the slope. She wasn’t really (so I say), but I admit I was struggling to keep up.  So I tested my new theory out and turned to run away from home again, and yes, she slowed right down.

Anyway, once we came to a better understanding about the degree of sniffing and doggy investigating I was prepared to tolerate (none), it turned into a pleasant hour, me and the dog, pattering along the road at dusk, 1 week out from the next big event.