Got out for a terrific-ly cool morning run. Put my running sleeves on :-) It was 50-ish degrees and just perfect!
Not sure why I chose to go down the "dog" road, but that's the road I took for my 6 mile run. I usually don't take it because of the dogs- but my legs took me down that road. I blame my legs because my mind really isn't functioning that early in the morning.
About 1.5 miles down the road, a car stopped and turned around in front of me. Kind of odd, but not "scary." Then a quarter of a mile later, the same car came up from behind me and came to a stop in the lane next to me, and rolled down their window. I had my hand on my pepper spray and used my meanest pirate voice to demand "What can I help YOU with?" I was ready for action!!
A timid little voice comes out of the car, "Sister Harsch...I am soooo lost!" It was one of the girls going to seminary and she'd just started driving on her own & got turned around in the dark. Poor little thing, she was on the verge of tears. I got her turned around and back on her way. A while later I stopped again to call and make sure she'd gotten there okay. She did. I wondered to myself if that was the reason I ended up going down the dog road, so I could help her get un-lost. Either way, glad I could help her out this morning.
After being helpful, I kept running and found the dogs. They were out in the yard running free, and ran right into the road to try and get me. I had my pepper spray out, but tried a new line of defense today. I kept the spray handy and just stared screaming "NO!" at the top of my lungs over and over again. Finally someone woke up and came outside to call their dogs off me. Mission accomplished. If you want to let your dogs run loose and chase me in the road at 6 am, I will scream and wake you and your neighbors up. Next time I will scream and call animal control. I have been chased by those dogs for 3 years now, and I've had enough.
The dogs were inside when I ran back on the way home. I actually got to run home un-interrupted. 3 stops going out, none coming home. I enjoyed my run today. Missed the moon because of high cloud cover, but I had enough distractions to make up for missing my friend. | 