Was It Just My Imagination

Today's run did not go as planned. We head out at 5am, as planned. We were supposed to get eight miles in. It was warm. Humid. Dark. It wasn't going to be great, but we were going to get it done.

Henri made a stop and was spinning, finding the perfect spot when a car pulled up to a stop. When it drove by, the lights distracted him and he forgot was he was doing. We carried on. The car must have turned around or it was another car. I don't know. It went by. We turned onto the path that runs through the neighborhood. Henri still needed to go, so he kept trying to find a spot, which meant more stop and go than I would have liked. While I was waiting by his side, a car went by at the crosswalk. It was dark. I couldn't see the car and it might have been my imagination, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was far too early on a holiday for that many cars to be going by.

I shook the feeling, but kept my eyes open. It happened again. Not that I would go without them, but I started to feel like a target with our blue LED lights, signaling where we were along the path. Again, it could have been an overactive imagination, but I was really getting nervous. The difference between being where the car/cars were passing and where we actually were along the path was Henri stopping to sniff, pee or poop.

So, being creeped out at this point and very aware of my surroundings, I decided we were running home. Of course, the sun was coming up at this point, but I didn't want anyone to know our route any more than they might already. While this is a nice neighborhood, I knew there had been a couple of reports of cars stopping or following women running.

We only got three and a half miles in. With all Henri's stopping, we wouldn't have made it eight miles anyway. Not exactly worth waking up early for, but we did get a little run, a little air and we were both safe. Henri did finally find a place to poop, too. Again, I'm sure that everything was fine the entire time, but just in case I plan on taking more than a fuzzy buddy with me on Wednesday.