I picked up Odee at 7 this morning and we headed up to Davis County to run on Antelope Island. His saddle bag pack was so full of water and treats I had to help him in the back of my jeep. And - since I took out the back seat - I kept having Odee literally looking over my shoulder. We ran the WhiteRock trail and part of the Lakeside Trail. Odee's leash kept shutting off my Garmin until I finally switched it to a position it wouldn't hit it - so relied on other's readings for some of my mileage. Odee did not allow for any warmup at all - he was ready to run, so we rushed through the first mile - with numerous doggie pit stops until he settled in. I made him run pretty well non-stop until the bench at mile 3 (this includes a long - but not steep - uphill). Odee was so thirsty he drank an entire water bottle full of water at this break. I did give in and let him walk part of the next uphill (it wasn't for me - honest :) ). Jim Stead caught up to us at this point and told us he just got permission for us to run a new section of trail. This section follows the northern side of the valley around White Rock Bay. It eliminates a pretty tough uphill, but also a long section of downhill switchbacks I really like. It was sweet running new trail. This was gentle up and downs and I let Odee set the pace on this section. For about a mile we circled 6 buffalo - but other than Odee and the bison eyeing each other they just ignored each other. When I came down the backside of the trail - Odee could see my jeep and he was setting a good pace. He wouldn't drink anything because he thought the run was almost over. Sucker! There were still 4 miles left. He was enjoying the treats his mom packed in his lunch. We saved most of them for after the run. Met up with the other runners at the jeep after 11 miles of running (and 1/4 mile of walking uphill) and Odee cadged beef jerky off a few of them until I gave him his treats and boosted him up into the car. Went to lunch at IHOP afterwards with my sis, BIL, niece and her hubby and Odee came out into the parking lot and met everyone and was admired. After lunch we stopped at Petsmart and it was fun watching people's eyes get big when they saw Odee and hearing 'wow - that is one BIG dog!'. Lots of people wanted to know what he was and pet him. He probably saw 20 or more barking dogs and totally ignored them all. Les - that's the secret - make him run 11 miles each morning! On the way home Odee and I debated about whether we qualified for the HOV lane (it says 2+ occupants - not people) - but we decided to not push our luck.
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