Crunchy ‘Nanas

“I have never done a 10k or 12k race.”

“Whatever, liar! Sure you have. Haven’t you?”

“Nope.”

“Bay to Breakers?” No. “Bridge to Bridge?” No. “Wharf to Wharf?” No. “Anything to anything?”

“Nope. I’ve done the Run for the Seals, the Tree-athlon, and the run in Dublin.”

So, as you can see, we have firmly established that the upcoming Paris-Versailles 10-miler is the longest race Crunchy husband has ever trained for. So three cheers for Crunchy husband! He is very determined. He did very well on the ups and downs of last Sunday’s 5 mile run through various sleeping villages in Normandy. (The guys standing at our finish were a bit puzzled at why we kept running tiny laps around the panorama de la Seine, but we reached our destination 200 yards shy of our 5 mile goal, and when we say 5 miles, we mean 5 miles.)

It was a good run. Freddy the French cat’s owner threw in some hills to give us a good workout. I think we are on our way to being okay for the race at the end of September. Plus, we got to say “Bonjour!” to the few people out walking their dogs. Which I totally got a kick out of, for some reason. Have I mentioned I am inclined toward simple pleasures? However, I think I need to learn some calming phrases for the crazy loner dogs that stand motionless in the middle of the road staring at you until right as you start to pass them, and then they bark and salivate like they’ve been kept starving and you’re the first “food” they’ve seen in two years.

I hate dogs off leashes. Or, I hate unpredictable dogs that look as if they’d love to rip the flesh from your calves and gnaw at your tibia while you struggle on the ground, racking your brains for the French for “help! help! I’m a good person and I’m being eaten alive by Lassie” off leashes. (I also am not a big fan of dogs off leashes on cycle paths. But that’s another story.)

I offer, as evidence that we made it past crazy loner dog in the middle of the road, this photo showing all calves and limbs intact. And smiles! We smile when we run! Hooray!

This entry was posted on Thursday, 16th August 2007 at  14:33 and is filed under Running. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.