Did you know that June 6 is National Running Day? Did you get a run in? I didn’t know about it until this morning, but I had already run four miles. Maybe if I’d known before my run I would have been inspired to run a little farther. Or, maybe not.
In any case, as you know if you follow me here, or on Instagram, or Facebook, or Twitter (see how easy I just made it for you to follow me?), I usually run with Penny. When I write about it, I don’t always say, “Penny my Dalmatian,” or “Penny the dog,” so some people may think that I have an extremely fast, energetic, inspirational girlfriend that is always at my beck and call when I want to run.
Well, I do. She’s a dog. Whenever I write about Penny, I usually link to something about her, not necessarily a good thing. Like this, “Penny the Trash Dog.” Or this one, “The The Former Perfect Penny.” I do have a couple of running specific posts, including one of my favorites, “Run Like a Dog,” and “Running with the Dogs.” Both of those posts, though, are over a year old, back when I had two running partners, Penny and Sassy, who passed away last November. It makes me sad to look at those posts.
So, I figured that Penny, my 11 year old Dalmatian deserved her own running page. Penny loves to run and, like a good running partner, often gets me out the door when I just don’t feel like running. She’s in great shape and seems to able to go for miles, but she is 11 after all, so I try to be mindful of that and not let her talk me into running her too far. We keep it in the four to six mile range.
Alan and I rescued Penny when she was a skinny, scared shelter puppy. We first saw her, appropriately, at a 5k race, which was raising money for Animal Samaritans. She was wearing a vest that said, “adopt me,” and Alan and I, who had just lost a Dalmatian a few months before, looked at her, looked at each other, and made the decision without even having to say a word.
She has been a great dog, our Alpha, who takes care of all the rest of the pack. I took the videos below while we were out on our run this morning, celebrating National Running Day without even knowing we were doing so. Sorry about the jumpy quality, it’s hard to take a video while running. Enjoy!
Running with Penny:
Speedwork with Penny:
