Today I’m thankful to have a new running buddy! I’ve been waiting for her to be old enough to start running with me, and finally it’s time. While we still have some training to do with each other…she needs to figure out that crossing in front of me while short leashed is a really bad idea, and I need to figure out how to avoid punting her like a football without tripping and hurting myself (because that totally did happen on our first run), but other than that she’s a million times easier to run with than any other dog we’ve ever owned.

Like people, dogs need training not only to get used to running on a leash, but to learn what is expected, and stamina! By the time we hit the 2nd hill, smaller hills mind you…I purposely avoided the big hills at the park, she was dragging, like all the way at the end of the leash behind me and pulling me backwards. Our first run ended up being more of a run for 60 to 90 seconds walk for 30 seconds type of deal, but still it’s fun having a little buddy to run with.

Just when I was reaching a point in my running life that I was kinda of done with running, here comes Ruthie. Mostly I’m just enjoying pilates, and yoga, and walking so much because they don’t flair anything up in my body (specifically my bad knee) like running can do, and I’m kinda over running in cold, wet, dark weather. But, Ruthie girl has a ton of energy, and she’s kinda making me want to keep at least a toe dipped into running. That, and Sky was very upset when I told her I may be done running races, “but mommy, I want to run with you”. That’s really hard to say no to. So I’ll run enough to keep my two girls happy. Hmm…I’m sure running with Ruthie and Sky at the same time would be very entertaining!

Very thankful that when I do run I have amazing human and dog friends to hit the trails with!