8 miles at 5:30am. Really slow and easy today.
There are alot of fields and undeveloped land by where I live. We kinda live on the edge of a city. If you go only 2 blocks to the west of my house you'd think you were in the middle of nowhere. There are no more neighborhoods and just fields as far as you can see... an occasional farm house maybe.
There's this dog that I see sometimes on my runs. I’ve decided to name him Sam. I've been seeing him at random times around my neighborhood for the 4 years I've lived at this house. I started seeing him more often ever since I started running in the dark at 5:30 am. I think he comes out mostly at night. He's a mutt about the size of a lab, mostly black with some white markings. He has kind eyes... when I look at him, he just seems like an old soul to me. I don’t know what it is about him, but that’s what I think every time I see him. He has a dirty old red collar on his neck so I think he used to be someone's pet. He's always pretty dirty himself so I'm pretty sure he doesn't belong to anyone anymore.
I'm impressed with what a smart dog Sam is. He runs whenever a person approaches but he seems interested in watching people from a safe distance. He creeps close to houses and cars kind of like a cat-- not out in the open like a most dogs. Sometimes I don't even notice him until he runs away from me. I bet it'd be hard to catch him. I’ve seen him cross busy streets: He crouches down low where no one can see him and waits until there are no cars and then runs across. So smart!
I love when I run into him on a run. I'll turn a corner in the dark and there he is... he'll run away but then stop and turn around and look at me. Sometimes I stop too and we will just stand there looking. A couple of times, I saw him when I was in my front yard and I got food out and made a big effort to get him to come eat it. He stops and looks from a distance and then runs off. The food will be gone the next day… I hope he came back and got it before the neighbor’s cat did.
Occasionally, I'll think it would be neat to catch Sam and make him my pet and running partner... but then I think that would be like catching a bird and putting it in a cage. Four years at least Sam has evaded capture and is successfully living on it's own. He just seems like a free spirit.
The other morning I saw him with another dog for the first time. I thought what a great thing that Sam has found a friend! The other dog looks like a German Shepard mix but he isn't as stealthy as Sam and acts more like normal dogs, frolicking around sniffing and peeing on things. He also doesn't seem to be as scared of people.
They were together a second morning too. It was dark out and I had just begun my run. I turned a corner and the two of them were eating something in the middle of the road. As usual, Sam immediately ran away to a safe distance, stopped and turned around to look. The German Shepherd mix was reluctant to leave the food. I could tell this made Sam nervous... he wanted his new friend to follow him. Sam seemed to linger longer than usual waiting on his friend. I waited too because I didn’t know whether the German Shepherd mix was as friendly as Sam… but he seems like he’s a nice dog. Now I'm always looking for them when I run.
Splits
1112
1044
1021
1004
1001
1004
1012
948
| 