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This morning Zeke and I had our 2 mile Doggie Dash race. What a blast! I didn't sleep well last night because I didn't want to miss hearing my alarm go off in the morning. I basically didn't get much sleep after 3am. At 6am I got up, showered and made coffee. I ate half a bagel and put everything in the car. Then I had to wake up my two sleepy head little girls who didn't want to go to bed last night. The 2 year old woke up happy and ready to go. The 3 year old wanted to go back to sleep. It was not fun trying to convince her to get dressed and ready to go at 6:30 in the morning.<br><br>
We headed off for our 45 minute drive to the race at Forest Nolde State Park near Reading, PA. I was a bit nervous during the drive since this was my first race and I had no idea what to expect. (I ran a 5K 6 years ago but don't remember anything about it except for really hating it.) I got my number and my bag of goodies ... dog food samples and a tennis ball which my dog will never play with - he's not a retrieving type of dog. We took a little run to loosen up and calm my nerves. Zeke just kept getting more jacked up the more dogs he saw. Thankfully, my mom came along to hang out with the girls while I raced, and to be my official photographer, even though she's not the best at taking pictures.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_start.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
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We lined up and we were off! I thought for sure we would all tumble over each other and our dogs in the first 50 feet, but things evened out and we all took our place. This also happened to be a trail run, my very first! During the first quarter mile, maybe less, I realized my pace was a bit fast since I was breathing heavily. Adrenaline probably had something to do with that. I backed off until I calmed down a bit. I told myself that this was only 2 miles, so I could run faster than I normally do. I gauged my pace by my breathing, allowing myself to breath heavier than normal, thus I knew I was running faster than normal.<br><br>
We started off going uphill. It wasn't too steep and I had no problem with it. A sharp turn here, then there, the communal watering hole for the dogs who needed it at the half mile mark. We plodded on. Zeke wanted to run. He was so excited and wanted to catch up to everyone in front of us. I had to keep holding him back for fear of tripping on the roots and rocks, and also because I couldn't keep up with him. Poor dog is always forced to run at my pace.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_finish.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
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Since I normally run a 10 minute mile I kept an eye on my watch so that I knew how far we had run and how much further we had to go. 10 minutes, more than half-way since I was running faster than normal. 15 minutes. Okay, I can see the parking lot, I'm almost there. I started sprinting and crossed the finish line to win second place for our category (61+ pounds). I didn't hear our time, and I forgot to stop my stopwatch. I can only guess it was around 18 minutes because a few minutes later I remembered and looked at my watch and it said 20 minutes.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_award.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
We headed off for our 45 minute drive to the race at Forest Nolde State Park near Reading, PA. I was a bit nervous during the drive since this was my first race and I had no idea what to expect. (I ran a 5K 6 years ago but don't remember anything about it except for really hating it.) I got my number and my bag of goodies ... dog food samples and a tennis ball which my dog will never play with - he's not a retrieving type of dog. We took a little run to loosen up and calm my nerves. Zeke just kept getting more jacked up the more dogs he saw. Thankfully, my mom came along to hang out with the girls while I raced, and to be my official photographer, even though she's not the best at taking pictures.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_start.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
<br>
We lined up and we were off! I thought for sure we would all tumble over each other and our dogs in the first 50 feet, but things evened out and we all took our place. This also happened to be a trail run, my very first! During the first quarter mile, maybe less, I realized my pace was a bit fast since I was breathing heavily. Adrenaline probably had something to do with that. I backed off until I calmed down a bit. I told myself that this was only 2 miles, so I could run faster than I normally do. I gauged my pace by my breathing, allowing myself to breath heavier than normal, thus I knew I was running faster than normal.<br><br>
We started off going uphill. It wasn't too steep and I had no problem with it. A sharp turn here, then there, the communal watering hole for the dogs who needed it at the half mile mark. We plodded on. Zeke wanted to run. He was so excited and wanted to catch up to everyone in front of us. I had to keep holding him back for fear of tripping on the roots and rocks, and also because I couldn't keep up with him. Poor dog is always forced to run at my pace.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_finish.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
<br>
Since I normally run a 10 minute mile I kept an eye on my watch so that I knew how far we had run and how much further we had to go. 10 minutes, more than half-way since I was running faster than normal. 15 minutes. Okay, I can see the parking lot, I'm almost there. I started sprinting and crossed the finish line to win second place for our category (61+ pounds). I didn't hear our time, and I forgot to stop my stopwatch. I can only guess it was around 18 minutes because a few minutes later I remembered and looked at my watch and it said 20 minutes.<br><div style="text-align:center;"><img alt="" src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/jillfo/Doggie%20Dash/doggiedash07_award.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br></div>
