It was quite an adventure.

TJ and I went to the state park to run up the mountain that we ran up a few weeks ago.  

As we started running the road that leads to the mountain road, suddenly 200 runners were coming at us.  A race started the same time we started.  Being understanding of not getting in anyone’s way, we had to run off the road and down an embankment.  Finally we got to the end of the runners and continued on the road to get to the mountain.

Then something happened that I have never witnessed before…

We were running on the left side of the road facing traffic.  A car went past us on the right.  It wasn’t going too fast as the speed limit was only 25.  The back window was down and a small dog was looking out it.  Suddenly the dog jumped out the window.  I couldn’t believe it.  It landed on its legs and tumbled about 3 times, got up and walked to the side of the road to relieve itself.  I was in shock.  The car stopped and I went over to make sure it didn’t run away and the owner came over to get it.  He said, “she’s never done that before…”  The dog was fine, they got back in the car and kept going.  Very strange.

Finally, TJ and I got to the narrow road that goes up the mountain.  We did this once before so I knew what to expect.  It is a 2 mile, 800 foot climb that takes you to the top of the mountain.  Beautiful view, but hard to get there.  The nice thing about this run is that I don’t normally run hard enough to get my heart racing.  I mean, I was breathing as hard as I could.  We got near the top and I checked my pulse.  95.  Wow, I am pushing as hard as I possibly can and my pulse isn’t even over a 100.

So we got to the top and started back down.  On our way I asked TJ if he thought it would be harder to run up the mountain or to ride a bike up.  As we were starting to head back down we passed two guys pushing their bikes up and a runner passing them by.  I guess it is easier to run up the mountain.

All in all, it was an 8 mile run and we finished 3 minutes faster than last time.  We ran this run Saturday morning and I am still sore.  It is a good sore though.  I used muscles that I haven’t used in a long time.  Our finishing pace was 8:50 which is really good for me.

So it was a satisfying day and a strange, dog rolling, race runner day.

It was a good weekend overall.

Back to work.

Tom