Run Time: 1 hour...Distance: Unknown
Unfortunately, I am afraid I had to make a difficult decision yesterday. I think I have to fire my running partner, Duke (the dog). You see, he has been slagging lately. I thought that perhaps a few pep talks and some additional conditioning might get him in the mood, but nothing seems to be working. Every run that we head out on seems to be getting worse. At first we could make it more than halfway without him pooping out. Then it was barely halfway. Yesterday, we had made it 1/4 of the way before I started to see the signs. I thought surely I was just imagining things, that he was just distracted by the summer smells and wanting to slow down a bit. But I was wrong. We didn't even make it as far as we usually do before I had to turn around and head back because he just didn't want to run. The entire way back, we had to take a bazillion rest breaks. The mosquitoes and nats were out in full force though so I hated to walk. If you didn't know, the mosquitoes here are horrendous. I had not seen such evil mosquitoes until I moved to Minnesota. Anyways, back on topic. Duke got to the point to where he didn't even want to walk. He just kept pulling off into the grass and staring at it. I hate to tug on him too much because I can't imagine what I would do if I were exhausted during a run and someone was pulling my neck. But the bugs were bugging the crap out of me and Duke just kept staring at the grass. I tugged him a little bit and he at least did a sluggish run for awhile. Unfortunately, that run would have been amazing had I not had Duke. It was feeling great up until the point at which Duke got tired. It was in the 70s and the flowers were smelling beautiful. I just wanted to run.
Anyways, poor Dukie. I may still take him out on short runs around the block. Maybe some warm ups. But he definetly is not a fan of running long distances.
3 comments:
Good story. I too have a dog that I can no longer run with. She starts out super fast and excited and I try to tell her we need to pace ourselves for the distance, but by mile 2 she's wiped. Now we just do agressive walking :)
Aw, sorry to hear about having to let the running partner go :( It is probably the best thing for both of you, and hopefully you two can still enjoy quality time together some other way! Also, thanks for offering the info about your aunt--I will let you know if I have any questions for her!
Oh no, poor Duke! Maybe he's just burnt out? Ah well, sometimes we just have to let running partners go when we end up in different places training-wise . . . I'm sure he'll still love you if you pet him and scratch his ears every once in a while ;)
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