Day Two

Today was gorgeous - it felt like a proper spring day. I was suprised as I was expecting a repeat of yesterday since it rained most of the day. It brightened up in the afternoon though. For the run, the temperature was comfortable and the sun was shining.

We ran through the village and out past the big old/new house. In fact, we ran further out that road than we ever have. We had a few dog incidents on the way out. That scrappy looking retriever thing near the football ground came out of his yard and chased us, getting within about 2 feet, barking like a mad thing. He ran away when I yelled at him. Toby paid him no heed though.

Then, in the village, just past the post office, there was a small spaniel-y thing in front of a house. Toby wanted to have a meeting with it, so I dragged him across the street. Our legs collided and I nearly lost my balance. It was an accident though - not a sneaky herding dog trick.

We were fine for the rest of the trip out. We saw the usualy suspects, but they were all safely penned up in their yards. On the way back, there was a terrier loose in a yard and Toby wanted to meet him, so I put him on the other side of me, kept a short leash and picked up the pace. Crossing the street wasn't an option because that could have potentially put us on a collision course with the spaniel-y thing.

We've only had Toby for 2 and a half weeks and I really don't know how trustworthy he is with other dogs. He seems content to ignore big dogs but wants to challenge small dogs. He was neutered about a month before we got him, so any sort of hormone-induced territorial urges should be gone by now. But until I'm sure, I'm exercising extra caution.

So we continued our run back toward the house. Near the pink store, I could see that there was an older lady walking a spaniel-y thing, possibly the same spaniel-y thing, without a leash near the football grounds. Toby and I took a detour up the side road as I didn't fancy passing an old lady's unleashed small dog.

Our detour was about 4 minutes, which was enough time for them to turn around and just about clear the area. Toby was very interested in the spaniel, but there was enough distance to preserve order. (And the scruffy dog didn't come out to antagonize us.)

The run finished rather uneventfully. The end time was 50.25, so it was probably about 5 miles. We ran that long last Saturday, but this is the first time we've had such a long run on a "school night." I was aided by having a fresh episode of This American Life to listen to on my Shuffle. That and the weather made it a near-perfect run.