Palmer Happy Run

 I've been totally exhausted all day, partly from waking up at 4 am for absolutely no reason, and partly due to lots of heavy work from yesterday.  Of course the marathon the day before yesterday has also left me quite drained.  In the morning I attempted a bike ride on the dirt trails with my friend, Mark.  That was pretty much a complete disaster. I had my 9 pound dog in my basket, which made riding very uncomfortable even on the smoothest of surfaces.  I haven't ridden my bike at all while carrying her. I'm not crazy about rough rocky loose dirt trails even without a wiggling load in my basket. It didn't take long for me to topple over and land in the dirt.  Fortunately neither I or Baby got hurt.  We walked the bikes for a short distance, and even that was difficult for me.  I was tired and the bike felt really heavy.  Mark traded bikes with me and tried riding mine.  It wasn't very long before he also toppled over.  My dog was starting to wonder whether she might have done well to simply stay home. Soon after I decided that I need to practice riding with a passenger on the paved trails before attacking rocky dirt trails.  We turned back.  I went home and took an hour and a half nap. 

When I woke up I felt much better, and since it is Monday, I decided to try running the 5 mile course on the Palmer Happy Run, an event taking place every Monday night.  I left early as I always do because I'm slow to begin with. Plus, I take the dog and like most dogs, she needs to stop and investigate every new smell, and leave her own mark. half a mile from the end, I heard a crash.  I turned around and saw a man and a bike, in a pile on the trail. He had a large husky on a leash who had crossed his path causing his bike crash.  I ran to him to be sure he was ok. Baby started barking at his dog. The two dogs chased each other around my legs until I had two leashes wrapped tightly around me at least 4 times.  Fortunately the man was uninjured, but I wasn't sure how this was going to end for me.  We both spent a bit of time unwinding me from the collection of dog leashes and dogs.  Then I was finally on my way.  I got to the Happy Run finish just after 7 pm, in time to get my non-winning raffle ticket. I'm still really tired but enjoyed the little 5 mile run.  Time to get a good night's sleep.