Dogs. Big life metaphors. Sarcasm. The Road.

One of my clients asked me the other day "So, What do you like BEST about running?" I expect that she was looking for an answer like this: The endorphins! The fitness gains! The epic speed! The magic and pageantry!

What she got?

"My favorite part is running back up my driveway and BEING DONE!!!!!"

Not gonna lie friends, she looked just a tad bit crushed. Feeling a little guilty I expanded upon my gloomy answer to include things like the obvious fact that I feel like superwoman when I'm done (even though I cuss the whole way around the lake) that I appreciate the clear cut way that races are won or lost (ummm, you were slow today so you lost. no mystery there!) and that I enjoy seeing my town from a runners perspective (road trash not included.)

After being in the gym all last week I was especially glad to see my town from the infamous runners perspective for the past couple of days. Running on the road is so much better than running on a treadmill, there is just no comparison. It's silly and foolish to call it the same thing (no offence treadmill lovers, they have their place as I have discovered.) Out on the road I appreciate that I am getting somewhere and that I have a clear visual that I actually AM (A life metaphor! How touching!) I like to feel all the road crap under my feet (little rocks. Sand. Salt chunks from the last storm. pine needles. and occasionally actual crap, thanks local dogs.) I just prefer the whole experience... Until the temps drop into the single digits!

Backtracking a bit.. Speaking of local dogs... Yesterday I was out and about when ZOOM out of the woods busted a stupid yellow dog. Not my stupid yellow dog, he stays home because he is a slow mother effer. (love him!!) Anywho, fast yellow dog scared the bejeebers out of me by leaping out of the woods like a monster and then refused to allow me to catch him and bring him back to safety. Well, fine... Run with me and get hit by an oncoming dump truck. I was most upset by this notion but despite my best efforts I could not get close enough to the little pest to capture him and attempt to return him to his home. He continued to run about 3 miles with me, darting in and out of traffic, giving me a massive coronary and overall being a huge jackass of an idiot and refusing to allow me to catch him (he didn't have a collar so the capture was rather challenging. awesome dog ownership skillzzzz..) We finally made it back to the approximate place that he had found me and I then tried to return him to the correct house, which took several tries. When I finally found his Dad he seemed blissfully unconcerned that his dog had been missing for a while and had just run rampant on our local "numbered highway" with me. "Yeah...." he drawled "He likes to run...." "He likes to get hit by cars!" I countered. "Nahhhhh" said the Dog's Dad "He always comes home in the end." WHAT. EVER. Off I went, shaking my head.

The great thing about having an idiot dog to run with is I put in a DAMN fast 3 miles because I was trying to catch him! Just a touch over 21 minutes- which is pretty kickass for me. The whole 5 miler that I did was quite speedy due to my microburst of dog chasing power. Maybe I should ask the dumb yellow dog to run with me everyday!