Who runs who?

23.22 min - 4.8 km

The Guardian ran an advertorial by Zoe Williams on taking up running with a dog. While having lots of product placings and links to commercial sites, it has has a list of common problems when running with a dog — and a few helpful solutions. 

The piece opens with a convincing brief explanation of why joining forces with your pet makes such good sense.  

Milo Royds devised dog running as a concept for the dog, not the human. They just don’t get enough exercise walking along a path on a lead, however many hours they spend that way. I, conversely, started doing this for me: I don’t have enough air in the day to go running myself and walk Romeo. So running together should be a good fix; I just need to iron out a couple of things.

Cabernet for a beautiful runner

53.45 min - 6 miles - Wonderful sunny September day. Light pleasant breeze from the East, still very warm and I try not to push the dogs too hard.

Even though they get hotter than I do, I envy them - they get all the smiles from passersby,  especially from young blond women, why, I honestly don't know.  The smiles are definitely for the dogs, not for me. Only occasionally I  get smiles from shaggy old farmers trundling in their tractors.

Well, I suppose smiling at dogs rubs off on me, a bit.

Sometimes cyclists pass us. On weekends we see runners and walkers too, a few women among them.

What is it that makes women runners so attractive? Can it be just the act of running? I've yet to see a woman who runs regularly, but is unattractive. I know, I am a runner and, ergo, attracted to other runners, ergo, to women who run, ergo, er-r, especially if they run with dogs...

But the magic works on men who don't run, too. Elise Blackwell, a fellow writer from South Carolina, tells me she was given a bottle of fine Cabernet by a neighbour as she ran past, with her dog. The neighbour, a 'wine evangelist', had just received a delivery of wine, a crate, and was sitting on the porch admiring the world and all the beautiful things in it, apparently. And it so happened that a beautiful woman ran into that picture. If I were on that porch I'd definitely do the same.

Except, isn't it a weird sight: runner with a bottle of wine in hand?

Here's to running, Cabernet and women who run.

P.S. There are lots of gadgets for runners. But not one among them to help carry bottles of wine. Does anyone have any ideas?

Dogs photo by ©Rein Tammik

Running in the Country: Drop, but Never Loose

6 miles - 52.48 min

The weather broke yesterday. It was a lovely warm beach day all day, but all through the night it rained and thundered. Humid and grey today.

I always take a handkerchief with me on the run. It is, I think, a runner's top piece of gear. I was sure I had it today, but when, after two miles in the run, sweat started dribbling down my forehead I suddenly realised it wasn't in my pocket. Shucks!

My circuit is, first, a two kilometre stretch which I cover twice on the run-out and the run-back, and then it's an 6 km loop. I was really suffering with sweat pouring into my eyes when I came back to the 2 km run-back stretch - and sure enough, the hanky was lying there in the middle of the road. It just slipped out of my pocket.

This is one of the joys of running in the country - safe and trustworthy. At least that's how I interpret the fact that I can drop something on the road and pick it up, untouched, in the same place half an hour later.