Running from Dogs

I’m scared of dogs and so far in my running career I haven’t had to face many of them. Well about 6 weeks ago I was running and approaching a dog that was lying in the road. He got up and started barking at me. Well my normal approach is to yell at the dog “GO HOME!” “GO HOME!” After yelling a couple of times at this dog to go home, I realized he obviously was not going to listen to me as he was continuing to run at me. It was almost time to turn around and head back towards my house and I was listening for the voice on my IPOD that told me “halfway point” Well I never heard the voice, but decided I needed to turn and run from this dog. Fear took over as I turned and ran from him. I was helpless and sure that this dog was going to eat me. I was running away praying “god please protect me from this dog, please protect me from this dog.” Well it was all fine and good. After that run I developed a fear of every dog. I had lost my authority that had worked so well in the past. “GO HOME!” Most of the dogs had listened to me but now that my technique stopped working I was afraid of dogs.

The next long run I went on I was going to be running in un-charted territory. This meaning that I don’t know the dogs on the roads. Most of the roads I run on, I know what dogs are there and I know how to handle them. I can manage my fear because I know what to expect. Well I had a little whistle that I could blow at them, but not knowing if it would work or not I was pretty scared. The run was 16 miles and it actually went well EXCEPT for the dogs. I ran most of the time being scared of the unknown. My legs were great and my body didn’t really hurt, but I had to expend SO much energy on the stupid dogs.

SO the uncharted territory was at the beginning of my run. I past that and I was relieved thinking that I knew all the dogs from now on and that one that had chased me a couple of weeks ago, well I was gonna find a stick to take care of him. So I’m running and all of the sudden these 2 black cocker spaniels came running towards me. Well fear took over and I begin yelling at the top of my lungs “GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME! GO HOME!” The dog make it to my feet and it’s just a yapping and I’m just a yelling…GO HOME. If you had a video camera I would be rich because I’m sure it was hilarious to see a grown woman yelling a little dog. But I was just sure that dog was gonna eat me. Finally a car came and deterred the dog long enough for me to make it past the house. So the next step was getting ready for that dumb dog that tried to eat me. As I was approaching the house I was looking for sticks along the way. I was gonna be prepared this time. I finally found a stick and was running with it was a couple of steps and decided that it was too much trouble to carry. So I just threw it down. Well turns out that dog wasn’t even there that time. So I was able to run home in peace.

After all these experiences with dogs I have realized how quickly fear can overcome us where we can’t think rationally. That little black dog wasn’t going to hurt me and if I had just kept running it may have even left me alone. But I fought him and expended SO much energy on it and he didn’t hurt me.

This is SO true with other fears. Whatever it may be…fear of being alone, fear of heights, fear that what has happened in the past will happen again. How many times do we fear something that NEVER comes true?!?