The morning I Almost Lost A Leg

The morning I Almost Lost A Leg

Okay, the title isn’t exactly true.  I didn’t almost lose a leg…I just was scared and those I might lose it.  I had woken up early, and at 4:45 I began heading to the neighboring village to meet my new morning running partner.  She is a new runner, and we weren’t planning on going far, so I figured I would do the 5 minute run to her house instead of walking. 

This is my first pre dawn run besides for the different races.  So naturally, I wasn’t thinking of all the precautions I need to take in order to stay safe.  I remembered my phone in case of an emergency, but forgot to pick up something much more important.

Rocks.  People need to always carry rocks during the moonlit hours.  Although some dogs can be nice during the day, during other times, when they feel they should obtain ownership of the main road, they can be vicious. 

I had run for only 20 seconds when 5 dogs came after me.  They jumped the fence of the house of their owners and started barking persistently at me.  I started running to the side of the road where there was rocks, and slid down as I tried to grab a few rocks to throw at the dogs while yelling “Halu!” (Go away for dogs.)They finally retreated and I decided to walk for a bit.  I was so scared with so many of them that I would wake up my neighbors screaming for bloody murder as they gnawed off my leg.  I felt like I caught a break there. 

When I felt far enough away from the dogs, I picked up the pace again.  I had my telephone in one hand, and a big rock in the other.  When I was heading down the hill, I shifted my rock and phone from hand to hand and lost concentration and biffed it down the hill.  I did not way to stay laid out in the middle of the road, so tried to ignore the pain and got up.  My hand and leg were a little scraped up, but there wasn’t too much blood for me to consider cancelling my plans. 

I limped for a little bit, but I tried to stay tough and strong.  I am glad I did because I had a fabulous morning.  For a girl that has never run before, she was doing amazing.  She was so much better than I was when I first started running last October.  We had such a fun time talking and exercising.  We had a few dogs come after us, but retreated when we threw our rocks.  We tried to be smart and walk every time we passed a house where there is a loud dog during the day. 

I feel like a definitely caught a break by nothing worse happening to me after the start of the day I had.  If there were no rocks around, I feel like it could have been the day my leg was gnawed away.