A run with Joey

I am having such a hard time believing that it's November--the weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS for the past several days. It's been in the 60's and even the low 70's and sunny! A couple of weeks ago, it was snowing at the starting line of the Detroit Marathon. Go figure ;) #PureMichigan

This morning, the kids were ready for school pretty early, so I found a documentary on Netflix to watch while we waited to head to school. It was called "Fed Up", and I could have sworn I watched it before, but once I started it, I realized I must have been thinking of something else. It was a really good documentary! It's about the food industry and how the changes in ingredients are making Americans fatter--the use of sugar, in particular. I'm glad my kids found it really interesting. Watching it made me want to cut back on sugar (not eliminate it entirely, but at least to be more conscious about how much I'm eating).

After the kids went to school, I got ready to head out for a run. Joey always gives me "the look" when he knows I'm going for a run:

I used to take him with me, but he still doesn't do well on a leash (he zig-zags in front of me), and it was really irritating to my injury when he would pull on the leash during a run. I decided to take him with me today, because that look he gives me is too much to resist sometimes ;)

He was SO excited when he saw me pick up his no-pull harness. We drove to the State Park to run the 5K loop there. First, I let him get all of his sniffing and peeing in, before we started the run. As soon as we started the loop, he began his zig-zagging, and I thought, "Oh, no, why did I think this would be a good idea?!" But I hoped that he would get in a rhythm after a few minutes.

Thankfully, once he realized that we were running and not doing a start-and-stop walk like usual, he did much better. The first mile was hard (physically) for me, because I was working on controlling Joey, but after that, it got easier. He was so excited to there!

Mile 2; we stopped for a picture. What were we looking at?
I have no idea!

When we hit the three mile mark, I stopped the Garmin and we walked to the water. I let Joey off his leash for a couple of minutes so he could swim and cool off, and then we walked back to the car. Our pace was 9:31, but it felt so much harder than that!

Taking Joey with me was fun today; I don't plan to run with him all the time, because it is a big mental and physical challenge, but once in a while is okay.

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Sunday is the third annual Monroe Half Marathon (my hometown race). I ran it in 2013 and 2014, but this year I'm not going to be doing it (for fear of injury). Instead, I'm going to volunteer! Jessica asked me if I wanted to volunteer with her, so we are going to be course marshals at mile 3.5. The race changed the course this year, and it doesn't go through the State Park anymore. I'm not crazy about the new course, so I don't feel too bad about not running it.

I don't think I know anyone that's running the race, but I'm excited to volunteer. The temp is actually supposed to drop this weekend (high of 50 on Sunday), which will be good for racing. I'm glad that it will feel like fall weather!