4 miles in with 4+ miles to go, a puppy comes out of the ditch and starts running beside me. The closest house is about a mile up the road so I feel bad for this pup who seems real happy to see a human. Unfortunately puppies tend to be excited and not think. Instead of staying alongside me it decides to bolt in front of me… yeah… down I go as I’m running a decent clip when the pup took a hard left in front of me.
When you find yourself laying on the asphalt looking at the sky, you begin to evaluate how hurt you might be from what just happened. I could feel the burning skin and pain in my knee. Nothing felt broken or sprained and I was able to get back on my feet to continue the run. Yes, it hurt. I knew my body was going to be in healing mode for a while and there was blood coming from my wounds so I drank several ounces of water to give it a boost.
After the first quarter-mile I was back to decent pace and headed toward home. It was a memorable run home. For a moment I had considered calling for a ride, but I was mobile again and making decent progress in spite of the injuries. I took the photos when I got in the house to evaluate the damages.
Now about the pup. I’m concerned he was dumped out in the country so I’m going to head out there in the car to see if I can find it and make a report to the County Animal Control team. He seemed fine enough after I fell over him. When I got back up he was running the other direction. Poor thing probably thought I kicked him or was being a mean human.
Today, I actually left some skin in the “game”, but will live to run another day!
Onward!
