Today’s run was supposed to be hill repeats.  We have a small section of hills near our house so I elected to run them, over and over and over.  Not a problem.

As I was on my last section of hill repeats, in the distance I noticed two large animals.  I was unable to determine if they were deer, coyote or dog.  They were pretty far away.

I kept on running.  There were woods on either side of the road and I figured they would run into the woods as I got closer.

Wrong.

Getting closer, I could tell that they were not deer, that left coyote or dog.   I began to make noise.  I yelled, “Shoo!  Shoo!”   They did not shoo.  I yelled louder, “Go home!”  They did not go home.  As a matter of fact, they started running!  Towards me!!!

This would not do.

They were running at me fast by this time.  I stopped running.  I thought to myself, “Oh, boy.  Now what!?!”

I kept on yelling.  This time, “Stay!” and “Bad Dog!”  Nothing was working.  They were running full steam ahead.

I will admit, I was getting nervous. I was just standing there, yelling.

Then, without warning, the biggest dog (I could tell now that they were Great Danes) peeled off into the woods.  Whew!  One down, one to go.

The smaller of the two Great Danes was coming up at me, full tilt.  It did not look rabid or anything.  It just would not obey the easiest of commands.  Stop.  Sit.  Stay.  Bad dog.  Heel.  Nothing worked!

Finally, the dog got very close to me and came to a screeching halt.  It looked at me and said, well, the look it gave me said, “Pet me.”

So, I did.

He was a nice, albeit disobedient dog.

Soon after I petted the dog, I tried to run some more but the dog was having no part of that.  I was in a pickle.  Then a white SUV came around the corner and stopped right next to the dog and myself.

“I am so sorry.  This is my dog.  He must have gotten loose.  Please forgive me.”  Then the driver yelled at the dog, opened the door of the SUV. The dog hopped in just as nice as you please.  The driver asked me if I had seen a larger Great Dane.  I told her how he a run off into the woods.  Off the driver (a lady) zoomed to find her other loose dog.

I finished my hill repeats and went home.

Whew!  And that is how my first day of training for my 50K went.