Explosions, dogs, and creepy old men.

Lately I have been running way more than normal. (Since normal is not running at all, it’s not hard to beat.)

One night last week, Cody and I hit the pavement for a 5K run. He quickly advanced far in front of me to where I could no longer see him. Normally I am not a fan of running by myself, but that night I didn’t care. I had Rdio and my Nike+ GPS app, so I was content. It was a rough run that day, but I was determined to beat my time. I had less than a mile to go and I felt that second wind. I crossed the street and saw a guy up ahead acting a little strange. Our neighborhood is full of people, so I didn’t think much of it. As I went to pass him, he lightly grabbed my arm to get my attention. I pulled the headphone out of my ear and jogged in place as he talked to me about a explosion he heard and firetrucks speeding by. Apparently a house had caught on fire. I tried to end the conversation by saying that I would check it out once I got home, and as I turned he said, “I’ll run with you.” Alarms went off in my head. This guy was not about to run with me to my house! A little freaked out, I turned my music up louder and picked up the pace, thinking he would take the hint. After about a block, he stopped, saying that he was too out of shape for that. As he mentioned something about checking back, I smiled and turned the corner.

Breathing a sigh of relief as he disappeared from sight, I noticed something at my feet. A dog. Of course. I slowed and looked around and saw a couple chasing this tiny dog, explaining that his bark is worse that his bite. I quickly asked them about the sirens and the reason the other guy had stopped me. They had heard something, but did not seem too worried. So I kept on jogging. One block from home, I saw a guy on a bicycle. He was crossing in front of me when all of a sudden he turns and heads my way. For real, are you kidding me? He stops me and asks if I had seen his dog. I quickly replied no, that the only dog I had seen chased me. I tried moving on quickly, but I had no such luck. He began to tell me in detail what his dog looked like. Did I need to know about his mole? I think not.

After all of the crazy, I finally made it home with a time of 33 minutes. Sometimes I just cannot believe my luck. Am I alone, or do you have some crazy running story too?