100 miles down...14 miler coming...and rich dogs...

So I discovered something yesterday while running. I got to run out of a park that I normally don't get to run from, and I headed from there up a tree-lined street into what I'm pretty sure would be a gated community if we had such things in the area where I live. The houses up there are amazing--well-manicured lawns, wide streets, views of other well-manicured lawns, circular drives, and street lights appropriately placed every so often so as to highlight the well-manicured lawns. There is only one road in and out of the subdivision, and that road leads to a circle of 1.1 miles through the subdivision looping back to the entry road. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty sweet. There wasn't a person to be seen on the entire run, and I kept thinking to myself, "These folks should get used to seeing me because if they aren't going to use these beautiful streets, I sure as heck am." Whoever those folks are. I didn't see a soul. But here's the thing I discovered--rich dogs are annoying, too.

I planned to run about 3.59 miles yesterday. Okay, at least 3.59 miles yesterday. I had exactly that much to hit 100 miles for the year. The road from the park up to the loop was .65 miles. And I went around the 1.1 mile loop once admiring the houses and thinking about how peaceful it was to be in this beautiful area of town. What I didn't realize was that while I was doing my first one-mile loop, the homeowners were all coming home from work and letting their dogs out.

So I headed out for loop 2, and I met my first two furry friends. Yip dogs. No sweat. A few houses on from there, and there was a black lab-type friend and some other muttly looking guy. And the parade continued. What had been a peaceful neighborhood only minutes before erupted in wild barking for the extent of my second loop around. Eight dogs came out from four different houses in a 1.1 mile stretch. And still, not a person in sight. I thought the barking would bring someone out, but nope. Pretty much the same as in the country. When I run past someone's property and their dog goes on the offensive barking and such, no one seems to take note. Not something I really understand. If my dogs go after someone/something, I go after them... and then apologize profusely and explain that they are geriatric and can't hear and don't really have teeth anymore. No one bit, though. So that was a good thing.

Tomorrow is a 14 mile run. I was going to do it Sunday, but the weather is rolling in. Tomorrow's high: 60. Sunday's high: 37. Hmmmm, tough call. 14 miles is enough to reassure myself of my badassness (giggles out loud), so I don't feel the need to add in challenging weather if I can avoid it. The journey to the Flying Pig continues.