Half a pack...

This afternoon our pack numbers just half as many dogs as it did a few years ago.  At our highest number, 26 dogs called this place home.  This morning there were 14; this afternoon just 13 remain.

This morning began like any other, with Reggae yelling at me from his pen!  This happened every morning as soon as Tehya came outside.  He wanted Tehya in his pen right now!  After a little while of listening to his complaints, I went to put Tehya in with him.  Reggae didn't come to the gate to greet her.  I found him a short distance away, laying in a patch of fireweed, alert & yelling but unable to move on his own.  The yelling stopped as soon as I got to him; he wasn't yelling for his girlfriend this time, he was yelling for help. 

 

He was less responsive and much quieter by the time we got to the vet clinic.  His gums were grey and his breathing was ragged.  An x-ray showed a large tumour in his chest cavity, pushing on his vagus nerve and likely his heart and lungs too.   Reggae had a senior check up about a couple months ago. He had recently gone blind in one eye, but other than that, he had no serious health issues. He turned 14 in May and seemed to be doing quite well.  The location of the mass in his chest meant it caused no symptoms until it caused major symptoms.  There was no choice but to release Reggae from a body that had suddenly and dramatically failed him.

 

Just last night he was yelling at me through the fence when I was too slow bringing him a bone.  Today it is oppressively quiet here.  My neighbours likely won't miss his racket, but I will miss my noisy, happy boy. 



First Half Marathon DONE!

It's done!  I crossed the finish line under my own power and upright!  I was a few minutes slower than I had hoped to run, but let's keep that in perspective...I ran just over 21 kilometres(13 miles) in 2 hours & 39 minutes.  8 months ago, when I started this running thing, a single kilometre left me gasping for air and I was taking an hour to get 5km finished!  So all in all, I'm pretty happy with my first half marathon!

This is where my time went off track!  Kilometre 19 and my legs decided they had done enough!  I was well prepared for this hill at the start of the race. It's an out and back course so this both near the start and the end.  I do lots of hills running around my neighbourhood.  Going up was no problem. I was not prepared for how difficult it would be going downhill with legs of lead! 

In hindsight, I don't think I drank enough on the course.  I had way more water left in my bottles than usual & I probably should have grabbed an orange slice or two at the turn around spot.  Lessons learned for next time!  There will be a next time!

 

The Mayo Midnight Marathon is really a nice event.  Besides being well organized and putting on a killer breakfast feast the next morning, everyone was really friendly.  Somewhere on that hill when I was obviously struggling,  a guy running the full marathon, at about kilometre 40 of his race, slowed his pace long enough to give me some words of encouragment. 

 

A couple kilometres earlier, a lady told me I had a "beautiful pace" and referred to me as "steady eddy" every time she saw me for the rest of the weekend.  She may have a point....my strength as a runner is never going to be my speed; I am not a sprinter, I'm never going to run a Boston Qualifer time, but I am steady!  I settle into my happy pace and I stay there!  My split times are almost always within seconds from start to finish! 

 

 

Oh, next time.....I just registered for another half marathon in Victoria over the Thanksgiving weekend!

Not a runner...

I'm not a runner; that's what I've said for most of my life.  Athletic, sure.  I've played all kinds of sports and even excelled at a couple.  I was a very competitive downhill skier in my younger days.  My coach, who was one of the most influential adults in my life who was not related to me, made me run several times a week.  I adored Scott, but I cursed him with every step.  I hated dryland training more than just about anything! I never got any connection between my performance on my skis and running around a park at 6am!  In my early 20's I went through a stage of working out obsessively. I could squat hundreds of pounds repeatedly, weighed less than was healthy for my frame and avoided the cardio equipment like the plague! 

A couple months before my 40th birthday last fall, I did a couch to 5km program and didn't hate it.  I bought some really good running shoes and fancy running clothes.  A girl can spend a lot of money in a running store!  Then I got sidetracked with holidays in Costa Rica, losing Glacier & Deuce, Christmas and a bout of  pneumonia.  I kept running but it wasn't nearly as often as it should have been. 

Once I got back on my feet, I started running more and more.  I started getting bitchy on the days something kept me from running.  My husband started encouraging me to run as I generally came home in a better mood than when I left!  I still avoid cardio equipment as much as possible.  We have a lovely gym quality treadmill in our shop. I have all the technology to distract me while I run on it...ipad, netflix, tunes...it still makes me want to cry with boredom! 

If it was above -15C, I ran outside all winter in a pair of trail shoes with ice spikes...I love those spikes!  Sometimes accompanied by Tehya, the only one of my dogs who has the energy or interest in doing much anymore!  The road through our subdivison is a 6km loop, ending with a massive uphill climb.  No matter what direction I go, I have to climb a big ass hill to get home.  Over the winter, I took 12 minutes off the time that 6km takes me.  I started wandering into the next subdivision to add a bit of distance.  I got farther up the hill before my lungs begged for mercy! 

Last week, I blew part of my tax refund on a Garmin Forerunner 210.  What a fun toy!  It tells me far more than I really need to know, but it's just fun to use! 

Sunday, I went into Whitehorse and ran a 10km loop around the Yukon River trails in just over an hour.  Not terribly fast but I was pretty damn happy about it, especially when I couldn't run a single kilometer not that long ago!  I could have gone farther; I didn't feel like I was dying, I wasn't begging for mercy.  That damn hill has had some benefits...a flat course didn't feel so bad at all!

Today, after some discussion with a cousin who is an elite runner and fitness coach, before I could remember that I'm not a runner, I registered for the Mayo Midnight Marathon!  I'll be running the half marathon, 21km or 13.1 miles, on June 22!  That's right about my favourite day of the year, when the light is at it's height and it never gets truly dark.  The half event starts at 9:30pm.  Eight weeks to train! 

So apparently, over 40 years later, I am a runner!