Let Me Introduce Myself

Hi, my name is Oly. Yep, that's a picture of me up there from when I was just a pup. I was pretty cute huh? Anyway, I'm a pure bred yellow Labrador retriever and I love to run. Funny considering how I was when I was younger.

You see, I was the runt of the litter and the last of my puppy brothers and sisters to get taken home. I was shy and timid, in fact so much so that at one time I couldn't even be on a leash, much less go for a walk. The slightest thing would stop me in my tracks. Like a leaf blowing across the lawn or the sound of a car coming down the street, uhgg. My pacer was very concerned about all this because, well, he needed me to pace him. So we started off slow, walking half a block, then a full block and eventually all the way around the block.

Next we bumped it up to running. This proved more difficult because I was still shy and timid and my pacer even called me a "scaredy cat" a time or two. Which is a bunch of BS, because I'm a dog, and I'm not afraid of any cats either. I like to chase cats! I digressed. Anywho, we worked our way up slowly on the running as well. My pacer in an effort to keep me focused on running would hold a dog treat in front of my face to distract me from the outside world. This worked like a charm, cause I loves me some treats! Treats, Treats, Treats! Once I got the hang of the running thing I was hooked. I wanted to go every day. I wanted to go longer every day. I'm like the energizer bunny when it comes to running. Wait! Check that, I'd like to eat the energizer bunny while I'm running. Hmmm, I may have to dream about that tonight...

Anyway, I started taking my pacer out to the lake to run on the trails. Which is a blast except for the fact that my pacer always ran on the concrete path, which is not nearly as fun as running in the grass next to the path, because you can smell all the dirty birds there and all the bad little bunnies. So to have my way I had to retrain my pacer by pulling on the leash, to get it through his thick skull that we should be running over here! It worked. Maybe he's not that slow after all. I'm sure we'll find out in time.

Long story short, once I got him into the grass and dirt we never looked back. Well, sometimes I have to, to make sure he's still with me, but now we almost always run off road trails. And were actually getting pretty good at it too. I don't even have to be on a leash any more, which makes it much easier for both of us to get all dirty. By the way, were even going to go do our first race next week. Yep, a real race, a 20 miler to be exact. I get my own bib number, I get my own finishers time right in there with the humans on the results page, and my own finishers medal. Sweet huh?!

So this blog is going to be about me and my running adventures and thoughts. Not my pacer's. You wouldn't want to hear his anyways. Truth be told, sometimes when we run up a hill I can hear that pea roll to the back of his head. Hahaha!

Okay, stay tuned kiddies, it's a taper week and you never know what's gonna go down. Now I gotta go outside and pee on something.

Later!

P.s. Bark at me in the comments.

P.s.s Send me a pic if you want to be included in my dog pound on the side bar.