New 5K Record!! 26.53 Chip Time

Okay, for ME, not for the race itself. G

Bill, Meme and Brian met at Rilda's house to head over the the race at the Arts Festival this Morning. THANK YOU FOR GOING!!!

We parked at Rilda's and walked the 5-6 blocks (Rilda's terminology for 12-14) to the city park. I've never really spent much time there, but they do have a very pretty park! I'm thinking I might have to join St. George's Church...but more on that later.

We arrive EARLY. I know, this is ME we're talking about...imagine that! LOL I register and pick up my "goodie bag" which included a nice T-Shirt and 8 packets of Biofreeze. Hum....I don't suppose someone is trying to tell us something? We not only have racing numbers this time, we also have CHIPS!! WOW!!! BIG BROTHER'S WATCHING!!! G

So I have my towel to sit on and I'm doing my stretches. The other 4 are standing around talking and wondering "What the HECK are we doing here so early!" SORRY!!!

Monique and Kelly join us. I work with them and this is their first 5K! Way to go LADIES!!!

With 10 minutes to go we head up to the start line. Hind sight I think this was a mistake. I think I might have been better off doing some brisk walking and coming up the the start line right before they started. I'll remember for next time.

As I'm standing there some people are talking and saying that if you can "get out of the cemetery" you're home free. One guys said, "The cemetery is going to sort out the 'runners' from the 'non-runners'. BH!! STOP!! This course is suppose to be FLAT!!! CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!

Next thing I know the "gun" goes off and we're OFF!!! I'm moving right along and people are passing me like crazy!! STOP!!!! Geez, show some respect!! I'm just thinking about the "water station" as I know that's at the half way point. So we're kicking right along and here comes the CEMETERY!!!! AWESOME!!! IT's DOWN HILL!!!! Um....Wait....why are all those runners running UP A HILL? What happened to FLAT!!! Can I get my $$$ BACK!!! I suppose what goes down must come back up? (EEEWWW that was NOT a good analogy!!) Anyway, I let my legs carrying me easily down the hill. I thought I'd gain some time going down the hill to make up for the time it will take me back up. UGH!!

We come to the one mile point. 8:19 the volunteer yells as I got by. This tells me how fast I "ran" the first mile. Of course I quickly calculate the pace and figure at this pace I'll finish around 25! WOW!! Keep kicking!!!

The water station is just ahead!! YIPPEE!! Geez, they must NOT expect much business as they have only one 8' table and 3 people working. I grab a MUCH needed cup while still running and pour a little into my mouth. It's not that I'm thirsty, it's just that my mouth gets so dried out from sucking air!! I suppose I should be glad I was still breathing!!

Trying to get control of my breathing seemed to be the struggle on this run. There were honestly times I thought about walking. However, I talked myself out of it and let up a little to try to get it under control. I think in the next race I'll be sure to do some brisk walking for about 10 minutes right before the race.

I felt like I really struggled at the end. I think part of it was I "kind" of knew the route and that I was starting to watch street signs at the end. I was also looking for the big FINISH sign. I suppose that the signs might help some people, I think I'd rather NOT know. In a way the same applies to the 1 mile and 2 mile times, for some I'm sure it's motivating. For me however, it's almost TMI. I start to wonder if I can really keep that pace.

On the last turn I see the finish line and really try to kick it in. UGH!!! I just hear Dawn saying..... "Pain is only temporary, but giving up and leaving some at the end of the race is for forever." I don't think I had much left.

Final results
Pace - 8:42
1st mile - 8:19
Gun Time - 27:00 (compared to first race time of 29:37)
Chip Time - 26:53
Division Placement - 12
Women's Overall Placement - 86/319

I enjoy the before and the after. I'm still debating how I feel about the "between".

At the Arts Festival, they have a lot of "you guessed it" ART! They also had food however. Some REALLY GOOD FOOD!!! Back to the Church I'll be joining. They had this fried bread with sugar on top. YUMMY!!!!

Next run? Newhall - 6/21. I'm debating between the 5K and the 8K. I was pretty sure before today that I'd do the 8K. After today I'm not so sure??

From out of the SHADOWS.....

Wednesday afternoon as I’m driving up the gravel road I notice there are people on our barn roof!! GREAT!!! Since it blew off last month – well, a few sheets did anyway, it was nice to see it getting repaired.

So I’m visiting with one of the guys and he says. “You almost lost your yellow cat today”. WHAT!!!! OMG!! I’m thinking he got run over, or almost got run over. Cougar is the friendliest darn little cat and has become my favorite. He chases Seeker and “hides” behind things to attack him. Very cute!!!

Turns out it was nothing like that. They saw Cougar coming out of the back of their construction trailer yesterday morning and they had just come from another job. The house they left had several cats and the owner is pretty attached to them. They thought Cougar was one of his cats, thus they called him. The guy drove 30 minutes to our house with a kennel at the ready to take his little beast home. Luckily the guy saw Cougar and said, “That’s NOT my cat”. I’m so glad he didn’t take him, I would have wondered what ever happened to him. Today Bill is going to put Cougar in a “box” so he STAYS out of trouble. Or out of as much trouble as a Cougar can stay out of.

So last night after class I was letting Chemi and Cougar out of their "box". (To keep them for getting run over or chased by dogs) and I thought I heard a strange meow. I stopped and listened again. Yep, absolutely a NEW voice in the barn!!! G “Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty” Out comes this adorable black and white cat with NO TAIL!!!! (‘:

She is really cute and I know she’s not Alan’s because those cats run whenever a stranger is near. It’s pretty obvious she’s someone’s ‘pet’ because she’s so friendly. HUM>…..wonder if she’s the “other guy's cat???” Here we go again!! LOL

Anyway, Bill called last night to let the construction crew know. She’s in the “Cougar/Chemi” box so Cher can’t chase her off. If she’d not that guys cat, she can stay. She’s VERY CUTE!

Don’t tell Bill…..I’ll have to think of some “other” reason she needs to stay!! LOL

I’ll have to start thinking of some cute names, that start with a "C" of course……JIC ..

pooparazzi stikes again!!

Well, it was a challenge. Maybe an assignment is more like it?? (Rilda, do we have a new assignment yet??)

But when you take your little "point and shoot camera" with you to a trial you MUST USE IT!!! It was a nice evening Saturday (before the rain) so I didn't want to miss the fun of taking pictures. I made sure I had my little PHD (push here dummy) at the ready for ANY and ALL opportunities!!

Surprisingly, dogs are a lot more like people than you would think.

Pull out the camera when they are "going" and they try to HIDE!!!

I did get a couple dogs however and ONE PERSON!!! G

My first "victim", if you will was Ollie.

He was NOT terribly pleased with being the "center" of attention.

I did manage to get this rare footage however!

Poor Cozzie!!!

He wasn't happy either!!

He saw me coming, but couldn't get away!!!

Apparently Barb's dogs were the only ones full of....um...you know.

Finally our human, Carrie! She had NO idea I was SNAPPING away.

Carrie has a very interesting poop pick-up technique. She likes to "stalk" her pray!

I'm not really sure why she sneaks up on it? It's like it might actually be able to ESCAPE!!!

This one however, did NOT get away! GOOD JOB CARRIE!!

Do you really think she needed a baggie THAT BIG??

A Soggy WEEKEND!!!

Well, that's not totally true. Carrie, Barb and I left at the wee hours Friday am (or in the middle of the night - take your pick) to drive to Decatur, IL for a Dog Agility Trial. It was rather cool and windy, but we survived both the trip and the days courses.

We were in charge of setting up camp, which means finding a location in which a tent will NOT take in water and with the grass of similar length. This wasn't necessarily an easy task as the grass was in clumps with mud spaced in-between. When we finally located a spot, Carrie and I unrolled the tent and proceeded to set up the tent with only one problem. We'd gotten it up and then realized it needed ONE MORE pole inserted!! UGH!!! So, we had to drop the tent back down to get the pole in. Tent was up and it LOOKED GOOD. The 3 of us were sleeping in our vans, so this was the "boys" tent.

We ate our supper and all went off to our vans for the night. Terry and Jeff were to arrive around 10 pm or so. They arrived without any problems and NONE of us heard them....until about 11:15 PM when Jeff accidentally hit the trucks PANIC BUTTON!!!! Well, so much for a quite night!! (';

It was a COLD night and I was kicking myself (literally to stay warm) for leaving my sleeping bag at home! UGH!! What was I thinking!! I had one quilted Pepsi blanket and a couple small fleece blankets. IT was NOT enough!! I had Mad under the covers with me to try to keep warm and Kruz (who doesn't like to be under the covers) was at my feet. BUURRRR!!! We lived to see the coffee Saturday morning!

Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL Day!! The sun was shining (at times) and low wind made for a cool, but nice day! The only problem with this weather was as soon as you thought you could remove your sweatshirt, you got cold and had to put it back on. The dogs ran very well and we continued to pile on the Q's.

Saturday evening after our pizza we let the dogs play with Bea's Frisbee. It was nice to see the 9 dogs able to run together and "take turns" NOT!!! Getting the Frisbee.

Jeff, Carrie and Terry (with the Frisbee) TALKING!
Pauley, Rippy, Bea, Mad Dog, Tre and Kruz and all telling him to
THROW IT ALREADY!!!

Mad has it!!! Bea is confused and is still looking for it....everyone else is in hot pursuit of that MAD DOG!

Sunday night we got hit with some pretty heavy storms. Luckily (or not??) it was just rain. It was however a LOT of rain!!!






Jeff, Carrie, Terry and Barb looked a little TOO happy this morning in front of "their" mud puddle. Makes you wonder what they have in those mugs!!!!

The pole behind Jeff is either a weather alert siren or a UFO tracking tower. You decide.








Our dogs ran really well today, especially with the weather conditions. In the 20" Excellent B class we had a CLEAN SWEEP with Bea in FIRST, Kruz in SECOND and Mad Dog finishing THIRD!! YIPPEE!!

We no more than finished our JWW course when the rain started to come down heavy in sheets and the cold front went through. The wind knocked over ALL the jumps, chairs were rolling and the fence was coming untied.......YIKES! Notice the orange fence that is NO LONGER attached. G

We collected our winnings and headed home! We of course had to stop off at the DQ for ice cream and I told everyone that our dogs had "upgraded" from a dish of ice cream to the baby cones!! So of course EVERYONE had to try it. It was a HIT!!

Bea and Jeff - I think she's getting a BRAIN FREEZE!!!
But she LIKES IT!

Being NEW to the cone feeding method, Carrie needed some assistance from the now VETERAN "Uncle Jeff". So he's helping Addie and Carrie is working with Pauley, who's NOT sure what to think of having a whole cone to himself.

Addie obviously understands the "finer" points to "cone eating", which is to finish YOURS FIRST so you still can get some of your brothers!! VBG

1. Mad didn't like hers on the ground, so she needed some assistance. Once the top was gone the cone soon followed.
   

Poor Kruz, he tipped his cone over onto the cement. He was deterred by that however, and carefully cleaned up all the evidence!! YUMMY!!!!

Seeker - The BC with Teeter OCD!

Seeker completed a TWO hour (and I'm probably shortening the time frame here!!!) Teeter drill Monday night.

I know!! No lectures please!! One really should NOT work a dog over two hours, especially on Just ONE obstacle! But, when the drilling is "self induced"...what is one to do??
(Besides get a DIFFERENT breed!!!)

When I got home Monday I really wanted to get some planting done, so I put the dogs out front. I didn't have a tie out for Mad yet to prevent her from eating too much critter poop (see prior post) ....although I could have used twine to show my RED NECK side!!!! G

So, I'm working and checking out front to make sure that the "Seeker Dirt Removal and Tile laying Company" was still OUT OF BUSINESS. What I see makes me run for my FLIP!!! (see below)

Seeker is circling (NOT THE WAGONS), but the Teeter!!! Of ALL THINGS!!! He was racing around it like a dog possessed! He was trying to figure out how to jump on the high end of the board. (we've been working on jumping up on the higher end and riding it down Sunday night - I hadn't realized I'd created a MONSTER!!!!)

He'd rear up to try to get to the high end and then run around again. I was getting tired watching him, so I left. Bill got home and I showed Bill what Seeker was doing. He just shook his head and walked away. We went on with our gardening and when I'd check back he was still at that bloody teeter board. His tongue was about a foot long and his sides were just a heaving. We put Kruz and Mad inside and had Seeker come out with us to prevent him from dropping dead of a Teeter Induced Heart Attack!!

HONESTLY!! Maybe someone should show him how to get on the LOW END!!! (':

Later we went back out to help him do the whole thing, but he's totally obsessed with the banging noise that he doesn't really go to the end, just to the drop part and then spins around. Oh well....I guess there's worse problems to have????? Can't wait to start those weave poles!!!

VBG

Shot right off the DOG WALK!!!!!

Poor Pauly! Ever have one of those days where it's just NOT worth getting up in the morning? Well, Friday was it!! The second obstacle of the course was the dog walk and he took it at such speed that he over compensated and took a tumble off the 4' top. Luckily he landed on his feet and was just fine. Unluckily I only pushed the camera button one!! RATS!!!!

On Saturday however, Pauly did a GREAT job on his Dog Walk, I think he learned a bit of a lesson. Not sure it will stick however!!

On Sunday, Pauly was back to his old tricks and his "mom" even gave him the threatening FINGER!!!
Too no avail. Pauly broke his stay at the start and GAME OVER!! Some days it really stinks to be a short red dog with short legs and no tail.

Sister Addie was BRILLIANT all weekend!! She earned her MX with a DQ and several placements!! One of them BLUE!!
Way to go ADDIE!!

Packer NOT to be OUT DONE!! Earned her MXJ and two placements in the JWW Class! One of them BLUE!!! She also bought us DQ on the way home!!!
YIPPEE PACKER!

Poor Kruz!!!
When your handler can't stay focused during a brief "judges briefing" how will she ever stay focused on course!!!!

Luckily, Kruz was paying enough attention for the both of them!!!

I Can't believe I ATE the whole thing!!!

I finally got my potatoes planted Thursday afternoon!! NO SMALL FEAT!! With the amount of rain we've had it's been difficult to get the garden tilled, but I made myself commit to getting it done! While I worked, I thought it would be nice to let the dogs run. Kruz sticks around and watches, Seeker herds Kruz and Mad....we'll, I "know" what Mad was doing. Looking for "stuff" to eat. I guess I just didn't realize HOW much "stuff" she'd actually find and how it would come back to HAUNT me! UGH!!

We had just gotten to bed Friday night about 10 when it started. You know the sound, but Mad only made ONE...the explosive sound of chicken parts (supper), cat food, cat poop, pony poop and chicken poop all hitting the carpet! UGH!!!! So she spent the rest of the evening in the kitchen where she produced a nice watery present from the opposite end. Of course I accidentally stepped in some vomit in the bathroom which totally cause me to dry heave! It was slimy and sticky at the same time and COOL!!! It would make a awesome "FEEL IT" texture at a Halloween party!

Unfortunately I had to leave Friday am to head to Omaha for an agility trial. Actually, the only unfortunate part was that Mad was entered.....do I take her or do I leave her home?

I debated. You know no matter the decision, Murphy's Law will apply. Take her and she'll be too sick to run. Leave her home and by 4 pm she'll be totally back to normal! I'll note here that it is possible for a Black dog to be GREEN!! Mad felt like CRAP!!! I was honestly having a really hard time feeling sorry for her. I did however make some hamburger to take along.

Long story short, she did NOT run all weekend. She really did NOT eat most of the weekend, unless you count 6 kernels of Carmel Corn. Mad will NOT be allowed free range of the yard while we're NOT watching her. Guess what she did when she got out the van today?? Yep, checked the yard for cat turds!! EEEWWW!!!!!!