Run 552: The paws that does not refresh

Run 552
Average pace: 5:10/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Start: 11:23 am
Distance: 5.04 km
Time: 26:07
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 10ºC
Humidity: 76%
Wind: moderate with gusts
BPM: 173
Weight: 158.2 pounds
Total distance to date: 4290 km
Devices: Apple Watch, iPhone

With today being the statutory holiday in lieu of the actual holiday on Saturday, I opted to go for a run today instead of having to run that horrible circuit around the golf course at noon tomorrow. Also, it’s supposed to be raining and super-windy, so there’s a good chance I wouldn’t even be running, anyway.

The forecast was similar today, with winds up to 80 km/h forecast and a 70% chance of rain. I managed to both duck the rain (very light showers started shortly after the run) and the wind (it only got up to maybe 15 km/h, so it was breezy but not “duck as large branches tear off trees and fly at you” windy). There were some parks workers out pruning some branches, possibly trimming down the ones most likely to go a-flyin’.

Because of the wind I wore two layers up top, even though it was a mild 10ºC. I think I may have been okay with one layer, but two definitely didn’t leave me overly warm.

I felt a bit tired for the first part of the run, likely because I was running too hard and didn’t realize it, but my pace stabilized and I felt fine after, with no issues to report. My BPM is stubbornly staying around 173, still too high for my liking, but we’ll see if it drops the next time I go for a longer run. Or maybe I’ll force myself to mellow out a bit and see what happens. My pace was 5:10/km, which is pretty much back to form, so that was good, at least.

The river trail was host to a few other runners, some people out walking and the occasional cyclist. The most memorable person, though, was a woman out walking her large white fluffy dog. An older woman was jogging ahead of me and this woman and her dog were to her right. As the jogger moved past the dog started running after the jogger in a “playful” manner. The jogger was obviously alarmed and put up her arms as if it surrender. As I caught up to the woman I turned my head to her and said, “Leash your dog.” I continued past the other jogger and the dog then decided to playfully run after me and caught up and then jumped on me, putting a couple of paw prints on my shorts. I then turned back to the woman again–she was already making some kind of noise to call the mutt back–and yelled, “LEASH YOUR DOG!” I no doubt sounded very macho. I happened to pass her two more times and the dog was indeed leashed both times.

The best part is during the entire incident the song that was playing on my phone was The Cars’ “Let the Good Times Roll.”

It was a perfect illustration of why the bylaw to require dogs on leash in public areas exists. This person had zero control over her dog and the only reason no one got hurt is because I’m a 5’10” man and not a five year old girl. Had the dog approached a little kid the same way the kid would have gone splat and likely been hurt, possibly seriously.

It continues to depress me that people do not think of others. It doesn’t even matter that it’s a bylaw, it’s just common sense. A dog is not a four-legged person. You can’t reason with it logically. It is not as smart as we are. It doesn’t understand that jumping on a person can cause injury. We do, so we leash them and keep them under our control.

Anyway, I hope the dog owner learned something today and will actually keep her dog leashed in the future. She probably won’t, but I’m ready to yell in a macho manner again if I need to.

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