The "M"

Thanks to Kate Skinner down at Frenchtown Physical Therapy, I am happy to say that I am back running again and better than ever. Still, with less than two months until the Missoula Marathon, I will not have time to get my mileage up enough to do it. So I had to find another goal for myself. It was not enough for me to just be supportive of my man while he runs his 50-miler (the Devils Backbone). So I went and signed myself up for the Pengelly Double Dip, a steep 1/2 marathon that I volunteered at last year.

I had a great week last week, in terms of running. On Sunday I went out and did 9 miles, the longest since the 1/2 marathon in February, and felt so good that I did it again on Wednesday. On Friday, I decided to try out the "M" Trail in Missoula, since that is where the race starts. In the immortal words of Lance Armstrong after completing his first marathon: "ouch." The trail to the M is less than a mile long, but so super steep that by the third switchback, I was walking every other one. It is a steep hike. It is a ridiculous run. But at least it was over fairly quickly. Then I figured it would take half the time to get back down, but no. It took the same amount of time for me to get down as it did to get up. I was trying to run, but it turned out to be this odd shuffle. Did I mention that it's really steep?

Anyway, so here it is Sunday and I'm supposed to be doing my long run today, but I'm still sore from Friday. Jim, on the other hand, worked a full day yesterday, then ran for over 4 hours, slept, got up and is gone again on another two or so hour run, showing no signs of being tired or sore. He left while I was still in bed, trying to get myself up. Maybe he's right, taking care of the kids is WAY more exhausting than work or running.

The Bright Side

The other day I was feeling sad about Wesley, and Tom said to me, "Well, look on the bright side. It is a sunny day." Good old Tom. Always looking on the bright side. So, I've been trying.

Now that one of my dogs has passed away, I only have half the dog hair to clean up around the house. That is actually a big deal. We only have to buy half the amount of dog food. We no longer have to worry about leaving food out on the table. If we take a vacation, it will be easier to take just one dog with us, or to get someone to watch her. I no longer have to worry about what kind of trouble Wesley is getting into. Of course, none of that makes up for the loss of my best friend and running partner.

So when I was out running in the woods the other day without Wesley, I tried to look at the bright side. Well, I get to see more wildlife this way. I get much closer to deer and birds and the little critters than I would have with my dog sniffing around, scaring them away. Then again, I also, in theory, will get closer to the big critters than I would have. And that is what really bothers me. Of course I still have my can of bear spray, although Jim has pointed out that if a bear got close enough to spray, you'd have teeth marks. I have started carrying my cell phone with me in my running pack, in case I get into some kind of trouble. It is not as reassuring as having a friend with big sharp scary teeth at my side, but it's something.

The cell phone has already been really convenient to have around. I've been able to take care of household business while out on my morning run. It gives me an excuse to stop and walk a little bit, and makes things more efficient. But please don't call me just to chat while I am out on my morning run. I just won't do it.

I am really not that concerned about wild animals where I run, regardless of Jim's experience running into the bear and two cubs a couple of years ago, and the dead mountain lion me and the boys found last year, and the reports of wolf packs in the 9 Mile and Evaro areas (to the West and East of us, respectively). I think that after three years of running back there, they are fairly used to having us around. But I do miss Wesley.

Maybe having him around gave me a false sense of security, but it was comforting nonetheless. Even when Wesley was still alive, there were numerous times that I went for long runs back there without him. Like the time he broke a toenail on the ice and refused to go under certain weather conditions. Or the time that we ran into a man with two dogs out there and Wesley turned tail and ran all the way home. Yeah, there were plenty of times when he was just too tired or too interested in the chickens' compost scraps to be bothered with a long run.

The logging road that I most enjoy running along is on public land, but it runs along the perimeter of private properties. I have met some of our nicest neighbors back there. Well, sort of neighbors. Wesley never fought with any of the dogs that we ran into out there, and people even complimented me on what a sweet dog he was, so well-behaved. Well, that was Wesley for sure. He could be super-sweet, and he could also be a total punk.

So we're going to pick up Wesley's ashes today, then we're going to the International Wildlife Film Festival's "Wild Fest" in Missoula.

Running with guns

I was reading an article (in Runner's World online) yesterday about the governor of Texas shooting a coyote while out running. I no longer have the link and its not that important anyway. Of course there were tons of comments on this site as well as on facebook, from anti-gun people to anti-coyote people to anti-politician people, etc., etc. While it seems perfectly reasonable to me for the governor of Texas to run with a gun for his own protection (there might be people out there who want to shoot him!), and coyotes don't have a very good reputation, I am feeling especially sensitive lately about people shooting and killing animals. Just because you have access to a loaded gun, it doesn't mean you have to kill something!

Maybe the coyotes out here in Montana are nicer than the ones in Texas, but we've never had any problem with them even though we've seen them plenty. They've never even come after our chickens. Several times Wesley and I saw coyotes in the woods, and one time a coyote even stopped and looked at us for a while before running away. I never felt threatened, maybe because Wesley was so big and could be scary looking. Even if I had a gun, it never would have occurred to me to shoot them.

Now, if I had run into a bear or a mountain lion and I had a gun, the thought of shooting them would certainly cross my mind. However, the real reason for carrying a gun out there in the woods is in the rare occasion that you might run into a scary wild animal, you could shoot it to make a loud noise to scare it away. And if they are actually attacking you, it's probably too late anyway. The point is, I don't want to kill anything, especially just because I happened to roam into their territory and surprise them.

The one time that Jim ran into a bear out in the woods behind our house (with her two cubs!) he didn't have a dog, a gun, or bearspray. When she chuffed and started coming at him, he did the first thing that came to mind (after the thought to run - he had the sense not to do that) - he screamed at the top of his lungs. I don't think it really scared her but it surprised her enough that he was able to slowly back away, and after he got a safe distance around a bend, ran home. He hasn't seen her since.

Wesley

Yesterday I lost one of my best friends, and my only running partner, my 8 year old dog, Wesley. He was also a great body guard and security system, even though he was actually a big sweetheart. I always felt safe running out in the woods with him, because he had a ferocious look about him when he was being defensive. However, in reality, he was afraid of roosters and would usually run away if we ran into other dogs out there.

We got Wesley from the Humane Society animal shelter when he was three months old, several months after  our 16 year old dog, Cody, died. Wesley had already had a rough life, living on the streets, and there was something wild and weird in his character that we were never able to extricate, no matter how much love and security we gave him. He was especially weird about food. In fact, just last week while we were out, he ate an entire extra large bag of English muffins off the counter. He had a great weakness for baked goods.

People either loved or hated Wesley. Those who feared him threatened to shoot him. Eventually someone did. Those who loved him knew him as an overly affectionate dog who was great with kids, letting them climb all over him without the slightest grumble. When we were away during the day, he would lay on the most comfortable bed in the house, ours, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to. He had such keen hearing that he would be up and waiting at the window downstairs before we got in, but we could always tell by the hair on the bed. He never missed "story time" at night when we put the kids to bed.

We never knew what kind of dog Wesley was, but he got many compliments on how beautiful he was. I have often thought that he must be part pitt bull, because of his personality and massive jaw. If you have ever loved a pitt bull you know that they can be the sweetest most lovable creatures, and then turn into terrifying monsters if provoked. But of all the animals/dogs we looked at to try to figure out what Wesley was, the one he most resembled was a dingo:

Which of course brings to mind the line "maybe the dingo ate your baby." (These last two pictures are of actual dingos, not Wesley, although it is hard to tell the difference.)

Of course the animal shelter called him a "husky cross." They couldn't very well advertise that they were giving away dingos, I suppose.







Wesley will be missed by all who loved him, most of all me.

CF Fundraising

Just thought I'd throw this out there: I'm doing the Great Strides Walk again this year to raise money for the CF Foundation. Please check out my home page and share with anyone else who might be interested in participating or donating.

Thanks!

With an audible CRACK!

I left the physical therapist on Monday still not feeling quite right, and went immediately out to run 4 sucky miles. At the time I figured I just needed more rest. But then the next couple of days I found that my right leg was "wiggly" again. I could feel that my hips were out of balance even just walking. So I went back down for a quick fix. It's beginning to sound like I'm a PT junkie.

They say it takes 2 weeks, at least, for the hips to get used to their new position, and you've got to keep them that way or start over again each time you get re-adjusted. Consider me back at square one. I am taking it very seriously, because the more I am unable to run, the more I realize that I really love running. Of course the PT was right too when she said that running is just hard on your body and you need to do other things to cross-train. That's why this summer I plan on really learning how to swim, and getting a road bike. Which fits in nicely with my goal to do triathlons someday.

So anyway, Jim was still at work so I brought the kids with me to the PT for a quick adjustment. They were out of control wild and we could barely talk with all of their noise, but that's how they are. That's why it was all the more surprising when Kate (the PT) asked me to push one way while she pushed the other and we both heard a loud "CRACK!" in my pelvis. It was shocking, but not painful. And after that, I knew things were level again. I could totally feel the difference and it was amazing.

Hopes Dashed! Must make new goals

Well I was so excited after my visit with the physical therapist last week that I went out and ran a bunch. The weather has been fantastic and I felt great everytime, until about mile 6. Then my hip started hurting again. So I went back to the PT and she recommended cutting back on mileage, on building up very slowly, even more slowly than the typically recommended 10% per week rule. I'm pretty bad at math but I was able to fairly quickly figure out that I wouldn't have enough time to build up to the Missoula Marathon in July.

Now I've done most of the route of the MM a couple of times (and the whole route once), and while it is nice as far as a road run goes, it's not that great compared to other fantastic runs (ie. on trails) that can be done around here. The main reasons I wanted to do it were to be a part of this great running wave that is sweeping Missoula (especially with Runner's World magazine having bestowed upon the MM the title of Best Marathon this year), and because I wanted to do it better than last year (faster and with less pain afterwards). Alas, that goal will not be acheived this year.

However, if all goes well and my hip heals up and I keep increasing my mileage by painfully slow increments, I should be able to do a marathon in September, and I've had my eye on the Two Bear Marathon in Whitefish ever since Jim ran it two years ago. At least half of this marathon is on trails. And the more I run, the more I realize that this is the kind of running that I am most interested in.

Another advantage of figuring out this hip problem of mine is that once I do get it all worked out, I should be able to run longer AND faster, since I will be running more efficiently than ever before. So, I am excited about the future.

And as for the Missoula Marathon, I think I will volunteer and cheer everyone else on.