St. Patrick's Day Run

Okay, long time, no post, but I've been plagued with minor injuries this year, causing me to cancel out of both trail runs I planned to do with Shelby. So, my first run with Shelby this year ended up coming four days ago: In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Shelby and I ran the Westport St. Patrick's Day Run! I don't have pictures, but suffice to say, we were super cute in our matching shamrock accessories. We started in the back of the 4,500-person pack, one of only a few dog-person running pairs, and finished in 33:05, a time I was impressed with because of how many people we had to pass in that first mile. Whew!

As usual, we had a blast--Shelby is quite the competitor and is at the perfect height for finding gaps in crowds. Of course, gaps that work for her aren't always big enough for me to squeeze through, so there was a lot of apologizing and excusing myself, but no one seemed to care. Everyone we passed smiled and made a good-humored comment about needing "one of those" (referring to my four-legged pulling machine) or "cheating." The kids watching the run got the biggest kick out of Shelby: Their eyes lit up as they pointed and shouted, "Look at the dog!"

We've both been a little sore since then, but it was a good tempo run. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shelby's First 10K!

The nice people at the Pilgrim Pacer last weekend let Shelby run, and she was super: She stayed glued to the side of the trail and didn't interrupt anyone's running. Her only issue was a short spell of impatience before the start--she was super excited and started giving her screechy bark, but once the race started, she was off. In fact, the only time Shelby wasn't leading the way was at the end (as shown in the pic). We finished out in 52:04 even after the hills at the end that just about took us both out. She made everyone smile, and I smiled with them: I couldn't ask for a better running buddy.