I guess there are two sides to every coin.  I went for a short run yesterday and at the fervent demand polite request of my sister, took her dog along for the ride.  He’s a coiled spring of energy, always looking to do something but usually denied and relegated to small spaces.  I was actually excited about taking him out, mainly because a) the dog’s name is Diesel; and b) Diesel looks like a badass.  My concern, having not really run with dogs, was how far could he go?  Like I had no clue on order of magnitude… 1 mile, 10 miles, 100 miles?  I assume that dogs would need to “train” to be able to run longer, but what’s their starting point?  To be safe, I decided to run around the neighborhood a few times so that I could drop him off half way through if he was struggling.

To my pleasant surprise, though not really surprising if you look at him, he did fine.  I picked him up about 1/2 mile into the run, and we just cruised for 4.5 miles, no problems at all.  Most impressive was how focused he was on moving forward, and less concerned with other dogs and small distractions.  At first he was excitedly looking around because, well, he’s usually relegated to small spaces, but he soon got the hang of it.  It actually made me feel bad that he was effortlessly trotting along while I was going through my normal routine.  Only when I took off into a full sprint did he need to try, and even then it was just to placate me.

Here’s a picture of Diesel himself, doing what he does best: looking awesome.  Definitely looking forward to my next run with him, especially because he’d be able to handle any miscreants who might bother me.  Thanks Diesel!  And for those of you who thought I was talking about Tuna, or just want to laugh, here is a side-by-side of both of my sister’s dogs.

The Details

Recovery Run with Diesel: