140.6 - One Man's Journey

Running in total darkness is still a little unsettling.  I run in familiar loops but that does not stop the boogeyman.  About three weeks before the race, I was running my normal loop and it happened to be New Year’s Day.  This morning was probably the quietest I have ever run on being a holiday. 

The temperature was in the low 40’s so I had my skull cap on along with my cold weather gear.  I left the house at 6 AM and was headed out for a 6 miler as I was in my taper for the race.  We live in an area where wildlife such as rabbits and an occasional coyote will come into view hoping to find something to eat. 

As I headed south on 52^nd street, I saw a silhouette of what appeared to be a coyote about 200 feet ahead.  I immediately made myself known by clapping my hands trying to startle the animal and keep it heading away from me, the menacing, clapping presence.  As I approached the intersection where the animal had crossed, I looked down the street to my right to see if I could see anything.  My clapping must have worked brilliantly I thought because nothing was stirring. 

About 100 feet past, I suddenly heard the approaching footsteps of something and to say it startled me would be an understatement.  As my ears were covered from the skull cap, my breathing was amplified and other sounds were muffled.  Still, I could hear something and so I quickly turned around and saw something charging toward me.  I screamed like a child and then realized that the coyote I thought to be chasing me turned out to be a playful boxer that was obviously happy to see a human!  I immediately cursed the little bastard for scaring me and then started laughing like hell.

The dog must have been frightened by the revelers at midnight with the fireworks and such.  She must have run away but from where?  Most mornings, a few cars pass on this stretch but not this morning.  I have always been one to help a stray dog but today would be different, or so I thought.  It was problematic that I was about a mile from home and there was no tag on the collar. 

I figured that the dog would know where he was so his greeting would be brief and then he would leave to resume his exploration.  Assuming this to be the case, I looked around quickly to see if anyone had just let him out and was searching.  I still saw no one and heard nothing.  I gave the dog a quick command to go away and motioned with my hands to beat it.  Apparently my excellent communication with the dog was not heeded as I continued southward on my way with the dog in tow.  I kept trying to dissuade the dog but he would not leave me.  Finally after about 2 blocks, I stopped and thought about my choices.  If I kept running and the dog followed me part of the way, he may be too far away from where he lived to find his way home if he tired of my company.  I decided that the only thing I could do was to run toward my house and hope that he would remember where he was and peel off at the appropriate point.

As I headed north back toward my house, he was right there with me.  We were approaching Bell Road which was a six lane street and although nearly empty, still made me nervous to have an unleashed dog faithfully follow me across.  So I looked at the dog and leaned over to see if he would object to me picking him up.  Thankfully, he practically jumped into my arms and was ready for the ride.