Hello again Maine XC followers,
The other day I was doing a run with my buddy Tom Brown and a growling, black, scary dog started running at us! What do you do in this situation? First, you stare the dog down and make a mean face. Most of the time this will be enough to stop a barking dog from jumping on you. In our case this worked and the dog did not jump all over us or bite us. However, if this doesn’t work, as in the case of Boothbay XC alum Andy Panagore, you must know what to do next. If the dog jumps all over you push it off. In Andy’s case he let the dog jump on him and then it bit him. If the dog looks like it will bite you punch it in the nose and it will most likely back off and run away. In the most extreme cases you must be prepared to save your own life. If a dog is biting you repetitively you must either try to break its jaw, thrash it off you with brute force, or if you are strong break its neck. I do not hate dogs; in fact, I like them. But, I do not want to be eaten alive by a dog either! So if you are ever in a scary dog situation hopefully after reading this you can save yourself from being knocked down, bitten, or eaten alive.
On a different note has anyone ever had someone yell something interesting at them on a run? Some people hate it when people yell things at them; however, I think it is hilarious. If you have a funny heckle, post it on the side column. After hearing about some funny stories, I looked some more up online. My two favorites are PRE IS DEAD and yelling splits out the window of a car as you drive past. I live in a tourist town and there are many summer folks that run. This summer I tried out these things and made some people laugh. I feel that if a runner heckles a runner it is just plain funny. What are your thoughts on the matter?
As for the past few weeks of XC, I have upped my mileage to 45 a week or so with two hill workouts and an 800 workout. I averaged 2:30s for 800m on a grassy field that needed to be mowed. I was wicked bummed when Silas didn’t race at Twin Brooks because of a toe injury, but it was still a good day to run. Other runners took it out at 5:12 pace or so and that is what Jack Pierce and I came through the mile at. After the mile I pulled away and found myself wondering if I was lost. I ran the rest of the race pretty easy still wondering if I had taken a wrong turn. Running and thinking do not go together for me hah. I finished in 17:03, which was fine for taking it easy. At my home course I almost ran as fast as I did at Twin Brooks! The Boothbay XC course is one of the slowest courses I have run. I broke the CR by 30-40 seconds. I was stoked with a 17:09 because I ran so much faster than last year-which I was happy with. To round off the last few weeks I retook the ACT at Chevrus. I saw many other XC runners there; however, the test killed part of my soul.
The college search is tricky; you can’t start too early.
I have to go get my car washed by the field hockey team, so until next time or until someone posts a comment enjoy XC!
Chase Brown
