Smashing my PR—and mental hurdle

   I've been curious for a while, if I could actually run a half marathon (13.1 miles). Last week I happened to be in a leadership meeting over lunch with Mark M, and we talked about races and tris and the Ironman races he has done. Super inspirational. 
   And this week I happened to talk to Theresa on my new team, who has run several halfs as well as the Chicago marathon. She very casually said, "Yes, people will tell you that you need to stick to a strict training schedule, but the truth is, you're a fit human, and you could run a half today. You just have to get over the mental hurdle." She was so matter-of-fact about it, I began to think, "Well, of course—that makes sense..."
   She tried to encourage me to run the KC marathon on 10/19 (which I can't do, because that's the day I start Divemaster training). Today when I headed out, I planned to try for 8 miles... And just kept running. It didn't feel especially difficult, since the weather is cool (I'm a cold-weather runner for sure). I simply kept going. In fact, I was tempted to run the full 13.1 miles just to prove to myself that I'm ready, but it was getting late, and beginning to get dark, and I didn't want to risk injury by upping my mileage too far, too fast. (Which sounds surprisingly smart and responsible—we're still talking about me, right?) I resisted the temptation.

   So what do you know, Theresa was right about me.
And you know what else is super-motivating? Nike+:

   Of course I do stack the deck in my favor by creating my own "power playlist" of favorite songs—which I'm going to need to grow, as this run was long enough that they began to repeat. Still, somehow the right song seems to come up at the right time to keep me going: either a great hook, a driving, beat, or inspiring lyrics (every song on my playlist must meet at least one of those criteria, if not all three). Today Usher's "Numb" helped me out lyrically:

"They say life is a battlefield / I say bring it on

If you wanna know how I feel / Live it till it's gone

I'm just saying that what don't kill, only makes you strong

If you don't recognize what is real—

Then forever is a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time..."   

Thank you, Theresa, for believing in me! :)
* * * * * * * * * *

   And... A weird thing happened on my run: I was running through the park in Old OP, and nearly stepped on a very large red-tailed hawk who had just swooped down to catch a squirrel. He took his dinner up to a low tree branch and continued to watch me... so I high-tailed it outta there!

Welcome to the 21st Century

Now appearing on Shawnee Mission Parkway! Trader Joe's came a couple years ago, REI opened last Friday, Ikea will be here soon... KC is suddenly seeming sort of civilized!

Fun at the Pet Expo

Psst!!! Bring back something fun for me!

   This weekend was the Pet Expo at the The Overland Park International Trade Center. I attended last year with both dogs, but it was SO crowded that Aki didn't enjoy it completely, so this year, she snoozed at home while Tay and I hit the town. Tay is very okay with crowds! But he did look a little bummed to be leaving his buddy at home:

He perked up as soon as he walked into the Trade Center, though! He got to walk on carpeting, try out the elevators, and see tons of other dogs and people, not to mention shop booth after booth of doggy delights, sample treats of all varieties, and ogle a bunch of rescued parrots, whom he wanted to eat.

   His favorite thing at the whole expo? These empty cages. He was just SURE that there must be an animal in ONE of them! He raced back and forth, sniffing and checking them all, even standing on them for a top-down check. His goofy tail-hawk was wagging the whole time.

    The best part of the show—for me—was scoring a huge bag full of different dry & wet cat foods from a few brands, to try with her persnickety highness. Back at home, I piled more foods on the dining room table for Gyp to sample, then we all settled in together on the couch.

Zzzzzzzzzz.......

A tree at sunset, Stoll Park

Autumn on Antioch

Prey Driving Me Crazy

   Aww, look... She's all tuckered out from a week of torturing small, helpless baby animals. Kind of ironic that someone who loves animals as much as me ended up with a four-legged weapon of mass destruction. It's a good reminder that training can't always overcome instinct, and dogs are primitive hunters.

   As if to illustrate that point, we experienced a couple of funny things at the dog park today. First off, as usual, my dogs weren't really feeling it when it comes to playing with other dogs. They'd rather stand around and greet the people. But I take them there for two purposes: socialization with other dogs, and to wear them out. I want them to romp and play. So I was running with them a bit, but struggling to keep them going. I was commiserating with a friendly young woman whose dog was energetic but similarly uninspired.

   Enter the barn swallow. As I was standing there talking with a woman, I noticed in my peripheral vision that Aki and Taylor were zooming around the park in tight loops, crossing each other, heading off in different directions... in short, being crazy. But they weren't chasing a dog, they were chasing a small, agile barn swallow.

   The swallow could have taken off at any moment, yet kept swooping low over the ground, just out of reach of the dogs, as they wildly chased him. He was having a good time teasing them, apparently. We laughed & laughed as the chase continued for several minutes, until everyone got tired and the bird took off. When he appeared later, my guys had given up but a small cocker spaniel took off after it.

   Later on, the dogs decided to follow me, and we went racing into the woods, which finally were green and overgrown again, concealing the trails with leaves. The woman I spoke to earlier had a very large hound mix of some sort (Bloodhound, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Collie? Who knows!) named Cilantro. Cilantro was young and lanky, and she was all too excited to join the chase. I ran as fast as I could. My guys ran up ahead and disappeared into the overgrown bushes.

   Cilantro thought this was a pretty good game and kept up with me, lunging and jumping at me playfully. A couple of times she leapt up and grabbed my leashes, or my jacket, or my forearm. I had to keep holding up my palm and saying, "NO!" or "DOWN!" or "WAIT!" since I had no idea what commands she knew. She listened really well and backed down temporarily, so I wasn't a bit afraid of her rambunctiousness. Until she got really wound up again and suddenly...

   She literally leapt up and wrapped her jaws around my torso from the side, trying to pull me down. She didn't bite down as if she was trying to hurt me, just trying to win the game. I really didn't want to play the part of prey, though, so we slowed a bit and I led her back out of the woods to her waiting owner. Who thanked me for running with her. And I thought, "Yeah, well, I'm glad you didn't see what just happened!!" LOL

   So it just goes to show you that even the sweetest dogs can get carried away when instinct takes over. If you see a person roughly my size wrapped in padding and duct tape at the park, that's just me protecting myself from rampant instincts.

Smiles all around

   I saw this guy on Petfinder tonight (through a friend's Facebook page; believe me, I'm smart enough to stay away from Petfinder!), and loved his smile. And then I noticed that he's wearing one of the leashes that I donated to HSGKC! And that made ME smile ear to ear.
   And then there's my Tay, who never fails to bring a smile to my face. We ran a 5k last night, and he celebrated afterwards with his usual wildman roll in the backyard, grunting and snorting, teeth bared. I love this idiot.

   I mean "idiot" in a playful, goofball way. He's actually pretty smart. I noticed something when we ran last night. We started out fast—too fast for me—I could barely keep up with him. We ran down to the little park with all the Canada geese that the dogs want to snatch. There's a nice paved path that we circle a few times. Halfway through our run, he started to tire, and he slowed down. I had to keep talking to him to encourage him to keep going.

   We completed our last trip around the park and headed up the street toward home. About a mile away, Tay suddenly realized where we were and he TOOK OFF again, running toward home at top speed. I could pinpoint the exact moment when he knew where he was. I don't know how he knew, because we took a different route home and we don't do this route often. But he knew. I always test him and act like I'm going to run past our street or past the house to see what he'll do, but he always steers us on course. So I guess I won't have to worry too much if he ever gets away. He'll be back by dinnertime, I'm sure.

Back to the Future... I mean, the Pet Expo

   I met Ginny and her mom, Sheryl, at the Overland Park international trade center today and we checked out the Pet Expo together. (I was supposed to be volunteering for MSIR at the expo at the American Royal all weekend, but that event was cancelled... and we didn't have a booth at this new expo. Maybe next year!) So I dragged my Shibas along. And I say "dragged" because neither was in a great mood to put up with all the people, dogs, noise and chaos. But they did alright overall.

   I entered Aki in a "stay" competition against about a dozen other dogs. The rules are simple: put your dog in a sit or down and step backward, telling them to stay. Then some volunteers walk between you and your dog, tempting them by bouncing tennis balls, dropping treats, etc. Aki did well (I think she was 4th place overall), but an Australian Shepherd took the prize.

Check this out: my dogs drive a Delorean on the weekends!

   For some reason, the original DeLorean from Back to the Future was there, and we were allowed to sit in it for photos. Aki was mad at Taylor for hogging the driver's seat. Then it was Ginny and Sheryl's turn...

   Aki says, "Whoa, that's the biggest Shiba I've ever seen!" Actually, it was an Akita named Jackson. He howled just like Taylor.

   This expo was put on by a totally different group than last year, so it was starting from scratch: very good, but I'm sure will be even better next year! The organizer did a fantastic job and was SUPER friendly! We really liked her.

   On the way home, this happened: my tire blew about a mile away. I made it limp slowly into the driveway and called AAA. I'm having seriously bad CARma lately: had two flats last week (slow leaks that I haven't fixed yet), and now this, which needs a patch. This is when I hate cars.

   But on the bright side, when I picked up my mail, I apparently can save $88,500 by purchasing a $19 magazine subscription. I'd be stupid NOT to! That will pay for MANY new tires. Thank you, Alert Diver Magazine!

SHRED OP!

    I broke in my new gear tonight: the doggies and I took it out for a spin. The sidewalks were ungroomed, but the street had been traveled just enough and has a bit of an angle on it, so we jumped in the tread marks and got some decent momentum going. So if you look out your window and see a girl in a puffy red coat and a crash helmet on a snowboard being pulled by a couple of mini-husky-looking-dogs, just stay out of our way. I haven't learned how to steer yet.

Sister Story

Once there were three sisters, Jen, Kelley and Kristin:

And apparently one of the sisters was
much, much wiser than the other two:

And that sister also has a guesthouse
and a pool behind her real house:

 And she probably should put some fresh sheets on the bed
and lay out some clean towels. Just sayin'.