Furnace Run

Today is the ‘traditional’ Darley Park 5k run from The Furnace Inn. My partner always does it. I always do it when I’m not injured enough to do so. Our older dog has done it many times and been top dog almost every year. Now he’s perhaps not young enough to do the full 5k and so our younger model has taken on the mantle. Somewhat reluctantly perhaps. This year, not only do I give it a go with him but Daughter runs it too. Her début!

Our young dog does indeed prove to be somewhat reluctant and tells me so repeatedly by biting his lead for the first hundred metres or so. Once we finally get focussed and having started in dead last, we ‘storm’ through the field. Well, it’s more of a light breeze than a storm.

Furnace 5k

This morning it’s the traditional Boxing Day run at the Furnace Inn in Derby.

I run the 5k attached to both the dogs but forget the ‘dual lead attachment’ thing and have to cobble together a replacement using the younger one's halti. They are also rather difficult to handle at the start. The eldest is hyper, which is making the other hyper and when he does hyper, he does hyper with knobs on. We stand in the next street but not only can all the other runners still hear their barking, most of Derby can.

My lead replacement doesn’t work very well and just seems to glue the two dogs together. Which isn’t too bad but I worry that it prevents the old man trying to stop when he tires. So I keep stopping and untangling them, while checking that in his advancing years is ok. He seems fine and we even have enough in the tank to overhaul a terrier near the end and perhaps be first dogs across the line. Although we’re only 84th, so not sure if anything else with four legs was further up the field.