Today wasn’t a particularly bad day by any means. But, for some reason, I was feeling very pet-peevey on my run today. Maybe it was just because I was busy at work and had a lot of pent up stress. So, I thought I would share some of my pet peeves of the day.
#1 Dogs Walking Their Owners
I am a dog person. I have nothing against dogs. I like dogs. But it bugs the hell out of me when someone is out letting their dog walk them. The dog is walking wherever they want and the owner has no control over them. I’m more afraid of the leash than the dog. All it takes is the owner not paying attention and the dog to switch sides of the sidewalk and you have yourself a readymade trip hazard. Today, my favorite was a woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk while her two English bulldogs were each standing on opposite sides of the sidewalk inspecting the bushes. The only way around her (without trudging through the mud) was to jump in the street. Ugh.
#2 Large Groups of Teenage Girls
Ever notice the smell when running past a group of teenage girls? It is worse than walking past The Body Shop. I think I would rather run behind a car puffing out exhaust fumes. Yuck!
#3 Unnecessary Bike Paths
The lake that I run around (Reeds Lake) is in the process of adding a bike path around a portion of it. To do this, they are tearing out a couple hundred trees and relocating wetlands. It is totally unnecessary. The entire road around the lake is a 25 mph residential road with wide shoulders on both sides of the road. Not only that, but it is very lightly traveled. On my run today, I only saw 5 cars during the 5+ miles I was on Reeds Lake Blvd. During the portion of the run that was alongside where the bike path is going, I didn’t see a single car. Another problem with the bike path is that they don’t plow the path in the winter. So, as soon as we get snow again, everyone ends up walking on the shoulder any ways.
Ok, I am done ranting now. I will get off my soapbox.
On a positive note, I set a new best time for my 8 mile course. 1:00:36 for 8.04 miles. I am getting closer and closer to getting under the 1 hour mark. My fastest previous time for the course was 1:00:50 back in November. So, despite my pet peeves, I had a pretty good run.
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