Sunday's Workout (2/6/05)

I viscerally, passionately, maniacally loathe small, yappy dogs hereinafter referred to as "Little Yappies." (If you are a fan you may want to stop reading right now.) I am, however, somewhat partial to big, ugly, drooling, lumbering mutts, hereinafter referred to as "Big Uglies." This is a story about a Big Ugly helping make the world a better place.

There's a corner yard on one of my running routes occupied by a Little Yappy and a Big Ugly, both of indeterminate breed, gender and age. The dogs see (or smell) me coming and follow me down the fence line, barking like crazy and doing all sorts of other things that their owner probably adores and I find disgusting.

Anyway, about every 10 feet or so, Big Ugly steamrolls right over Little Yappy, stepping on him, pancaking him in the mud a few times - all quite by accident I'm sure. Little Yappy seems no worse for the wear though, except for his bark temporarily getting higher by an octave or two. No sooner has he gotten back in the fray than it all happens again: the steamrolling, the stepping on, the pancaking, muddying, singing in a new octave, etc. Sometimes there's a third cycle before I reach the end of their yard. All in good, harmless, clean (if muddy) fun.

I SWEAR I see a sly grin on Big Ugly's face as I round the corner.

Oh, yeah. Today's run was...above average. Light rain, 40 degrees, 60 minutes, 7+ miles, Zone 2, 21 left foot strikes per 15 seconds (right where Karyn wants my cadence to be), nothing hurt, everything worked pretty much as it should. And I avoided the Little Yappy route. Thought I'd give the little bugger a break.

(Footnote: no Little Yappies were harmed in the penning of this post. Not that I really give a damn. But before you blow a blood pressure gasket, the MOST you can accuse me of is provoking the incident. Repeatedly.)