01.11.14

morning run:
Blue
Rita
Archie
Shirley
Monkey
Twiggy
Hazel
Tori
Murci
(9)

To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant via the swimming hole: ~7k. I threw Archie and Shirley in on a slightly longer run for them; it doesn't seem to have affected them negatively and they certainly had a great time. For once we left with nobody on the leash which was nice for me, since I'm on the leash too when I have someone hooked up. I definitely didn't have my normal thunderbolts-for-legs today. I felt rickety and old at the start but the dogs carried me along with their enthusiasm and the pace was reasonable. Monkey swam the entire length of the swimming hole while everyone else jumped in and out from all sides. I wasn't sure about going all the way to the beach but when we got to the three-way intersection where the choice must be made everyone was obviously voting for the extra km so what the hell. I had Shirley on the leash at that point to keep her from punching herself out and to keep everyone a bit more together; I let her off on the beach but hooked her up again when we got close to home. The ocean was rough but most of them didn't care and threw themselves into the waves to come out and get me. Monkey screwed around a bit too much for my liking on the final trail. I ended up taking everyone all the way home and then heading back out with the black leash to bring her home in chains. I put her in the box for a few minutes afterwards. I'm sure she made a point of not learning her lesson; I would expect nothing less from Monkey. It wasn't so hideously hot and the bugs weren't terrible when we were moving.
GRADE: B (Monkey)