I am baaaack….sort of!

Happy New Year Fellow Runners,

 

Some good news to report….I am back “running.” It has been a painful process, but I have started doing some slow 4-5 mile runs…after such a long layoff I will take any mileage that I can get. I started by walking a lap on an old dirt track up here in Ojai and then I would jog a lap. Then I moved on to jogging two laps and finally I began to go on some easy runs on some of the more level runs up here.

 

I nearly saw my life come to an end on my very first run on the Ojai Valley Trail, however. As I was coming to the end of my run I saw three dogs that were off leashes and I noticed (from about 150 meters away) that one of them had the familiar body shape of a pit bull. So I slowed to a walk to wait and see if their owner would come around the corner. Before I knew it, that pit bull was in a dead sprint towards me! I have told this story a few times since this happened, but it was like slow motion as I prepared for the fight of my life and it is still so clear in my mind. I remember thinking about the horror stories that I have heard on the news about pit bull attacks. Just before the dog got to me it jumped and was about chest level before I jumped and managed to kick it away.

 

Now let me tell you, I am not exactly sure what the protocol is when a dog attacks you, but this guy was coming for blood. I did everything in my power to keep him from grabbing my arms and at one point (perhaps in a panic) I let out this wild scream with my arms in the air as to make myself look at big as possible, and I think that I scared that dog into thinking that I was insane and just as aggressive as he was. It backed off for about 5 seconds and allowed me to bend down to grab a rock, which really sent him into a frenzy. Let me preface this by saying that I am a dog lover and have one of my own (who stays on a leash 100% of the time that I am on a trail…and I clean his poop!) but I finally connected with a solid kick to the dog’s chest after what seemed like an hour of fending off his attempts to get a hold of me. His other two buddies finally began to wander off so he turned to follow, but he kept looking back as if to tell me that we’ll meet again (God, I hope not!).

 

After surveying the damage, he had scratched up my shins quite a bit and to my dismay, there was a chunk taken out of my favorite running shorts. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the missing cloth was mere centimeters from my BLEEP!! The awkwardness of potentially flashing a fellow runner paled in comparison to thinking about what might have happened had my new buddy gotten a hold of me in that region.

 

As you can imagine, I went home a quickly drank a beer to calm my nerves and reflect on what could have happened. No hard feelings, I am just happy to be running a few days a week. The Achilles tendons are reacting well, so I am very pleased. I plan to continue my slow progression and barring any major clashes with pit bulls, I expect to climb to 25-30 miles per week within the next month.

 

Thought you all might get a kick out of my experience on my first official run back. Perhaps I should take the hint??

 

Happy Running!