You can't really call yourself a runner if you haven't been chased, threatened, or growled at by at least three dogs in your running career. It's just a fact of life - the more often and longer you run, the more likely you are to encounter a strange, menacing beast.
It doesn't help that I'm actually terrified of anything larger than, say, a collie. I've always been scared of big dogs, especially if I don't know the dog at all. I don't care how "friendly" your dog is, and how he "would never bite." Your dog looks like he's eager to gnaw on my hams, and I want to get the hell out of Dodge.
It also doesn't help that, to a one, these dogs all have names like "Killer" or "Cujo" and are precariously tethered to a leash the width of dental floss that the owner tries, in vain, to control. "Whoa! Calm down there, Killer," the owner will say, and it's always someone who looks like maaaaybe they don't have complete control of the situation.
By this point, I'm usually well across the street and scouting a potential tree that I can try to climb. "Oh, I'm ok," I'll lie, my knees shaking as I try to do my best impersonation of a calm person.
The only time I've ever really, truly, swear-to-God been scared of a dog on my run was when I was in college. Now, I attended a small school in a pretty small town in rural Illinois. Once you left the safe confines of campus, you realized that the locals played fast-and-loose with rules like 'fencing in a dog.' One day, I was out for a run and went down a random road. About two blocks down, I realized this was a bad mistake: Two big dogs were lounging on the front yard of some (and I'm trying not to be judgmental guys, but it's so true) worn-down house. It wasn't a setup that screamed "invisible fence" to me.
I was at the point of the run where I saw the dogs right about the same time they saw me. We all did a simultaneous "Uh, what?" kind of look at each other, and then the dogs wized up and started barking and heading toward me. They weren't even on leashes. I probably wet my pants a little as I hightailed it out of there. I think their owner called them back, but I'm not entirely sure. It was one of those moments where I literally didn't feel the ground underneath my feet as I sped up and away.
It was super-scary, and it also left me feeling angry with the owners. They probably thought it was high-larious to scare people off with the dogs, but really? What a bunch of jerks.
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