Running With Your Dog

I generally don't like to run with my dog because I worry about running too far with her and causing us to have to walk; she's a big girl. She is a 90 lb black lab named Daisy and is super smart. So I hadn't tried to run with her since temperatures were in the 70s and back then she would often just decide to stop while I have her leash around my rist. She's a big girl so when she stops, I stop. So I decided to give running together a rest. Another thing that bothers is running with the leash, I try to unleash her when no one is around because she is very good about staying close to me, but there is a 4 foot leash law in Columbia, so if I see someone I put her back on just in case.
Recently I taught Daisy to bring me her leash when we are going for a walk. Today I was headed out the door for my run and Daisy brought her leash to me before I could get out the door. So I decided to try taking her fora run again. Luckily it was a great idea this time! She did so well, we ran 4 good miles together and she was the one pacing! I think that fact that it was 30 degrees out made her feel a lot better than in the warmer weather. So lessoned learned, don't take a black lab in the heat unless there's a lake, they do much better running in the cold. It is always nice to have a running companion furry or not, and running tires her out way more than her usual walks do, so now she sleeps!

Turkey Day Race

For Thanksgiving I went down to Sarasota, Florida to visit my family; it was amazing being out of the cold for a week. Every year I look for to running a turkey trot, growing up I always ran a turkey trot in Elmhurst, Illinois. Usually they are 5k and cost $15-$20 and the money goes towards helping to support local food pantries. Well I found a race in Bradenton, Florida on the Bradenton Runners Club website that I really enjoyed, it was a Turkey Day 5 miler. It was a very interesting race that was really just a fun run that had about 400 runners. The Bradenton Runners Club was in charge of it and instead of a registration fee they had everyone bring food or drink to share. It was an awesome idea, I brought apples, some people brought muffins, power bars, gatorade, even doughnuts, although because there was no entry there was no t-shirt, I didn't mind I don't need another t-shirt anyways, but if you like race shirts then this is not the type of race for you. That runners club really had their act together though and had a really big following with lots of highschool and college runners there. The day was a success, I came in 17th with a 32:48 time and I even won a poinsettia in the post race raffle. Only later that day I way over ate and nearly made myself sick. I sure was glad I got that run in so I didn't feel nearly as guilty for eating so much. Long live the Turkey Day morning race!