A running partner, Adelaide is not!

Time: 5:15am
Distance: 3.06 miles
Pace: 11:49

Sheesh! Here I was, thinking I would be the nice pet owner that I am (ha!) and take Adelaide along with me for my morning run. Oh my goodness, what a terrible idea! When we started, she took off, dragging me along behind her. I usually like to start out slowly and pace myself, but this morning I felt like we were flying! I managed to rein her in after a little while, but we were still running faster than I usually run which meant that I found myself struggling after about a mile. Add to that her incessant sniffing which, in turn, led to her constantly running in front of me and tripping me up, and my run was a right old mess! Don't even get me started on the potty breaks! All-in-all, it was an incredibly frustrating run. Oh well, these things happen. Now I'm trying to decide whether I want to take her out with me next time and try to get her used to running with me (and hopefully behave), or if I want to go it alone. There were times this morning when she was trotting along quite nicely beside me and, although those times were few and far between, that was kind of nice. Maybe I'll give it another shot and see how she does. Maybe it will all "click" with her and she'll be a perfect angel! Ha! Not likely.

On another note, I had read a couple of stories last week about female runners who had been attacked while out on trails (not near here!), and I was a little apprehensive about running before dawn by myself. Last week I ordered pepper spray and a personal alarm to carry with me, but those hadn't arrived in time for my run this morning. But, after braving the pre-dawn world alone, I actually felt really safe. I was out at a time when it was still dark enough for cars to need headlights, but the sun was just beginning to rise which made it light enough for me to see. I felt extremely comfortable running by myself and not once did I feel that I was in an unsafe position. Hopefully that will be the same for all my runs, and I pray that I won't have to use my pepper spray, but I will carry it anyway - just in case.