Saturday, March 13, 2010

Fri./Sat. Dog Attack (attempted)

Friday I was able to get in 9 miles; 6 at w/u and steady/cruise, then the last 3 upped the effort a bit. Felt very sluggish at the start, but finished strong.
Saturday I got 1:54:00 in with some good work in the middle 45 minutes and some strides at the end. Felt pretty good today and a great run was almost ruined by a couple of dogs that came after Tima and I. I don't think they'll be doing that again. I expect their "person" won't be taking them anywhere near that trail either. Before the "attempted attack" I thought my max HR was about 170. I learned that's my max while running, there are in fact other max HR's that I have.
Here's what happened, Tima and I were on our way back from an out/back moving along quite well; Tima was situated about 7-8 feet behind me as she usually is at this point in the run. I see ahead on the trail a man with his 2 over-weight black lab mix on leashes. They see us and start to pull like sled dogs and this guy is having a hard to holding them back. I ease up and start walking and stay close to Tima because I know, from experience, that's who they want. Now these dogs are really pulling hard and this man is holding on, but they are dragging him. I'm thinking wholly shit here we go. I say to the man, as if I already know he will not be able to get control, "Will they bite?" At that moment, as he attempted to yank them back one slipped out of his collar and as he tried to get it back he let go of the other's leash. The first one was coming right at us and the other less than a second behind. Instincts kicked in (no pun intended) and I wound up and kicked the first one in the jaw as hard as I could. It was like an uppercut to his under jaw. I couldn't have asked for better contact, he fell to his side and stood up immediately, but in a freeze just looking at me. I was in that focused mode and heard nothing, but a moment after I could hear the aweful sound of Tima fighting the other dog. I turned to look and she had the other on it's back and it was squirming to defend itself. I grabbed Tima's collar and started running again, this could not have gone on any longer than 5 seconds, but as I recount the memory in my head it seems like 5 minutes. I gave a look back and saw that the man has a hold of both his dogs and I said "Get a fucking muzzel for those dogs." Then immediately looked down at my HR, 176!!
It was very obvious that these dogs hadn't been out of their yard all winter and this guy decided they could use a nice walk and some exercise. I think what people don't understand is that dogs need a job, if they have nothing to do they will make one up for themselves. In most cases it will be the job of Protector. When these dogs finally do get out, they still have the same job, and in our case today, they wanted to defend every square inch of trail/forest that was out there as well as thier "person." I have ZERO tolerance for this shit. This has happened to Tima and I about 5-6 times over the last 9 years and everytime it's been 2 dogs, never just one. Of course we've encountered thousands of dogs on the trails over the past 9 years so this certainly isn't a BIG problem, but it only takes one time of a size and breed of dog where Tima and I won't "WIN." I may consider carrying some bear spray. Slight soreness on the top of my foot, but it's almost gone now. I think the adrenline that was spit out at a HR of 176 took care of that right away.

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