18.11.14

morning run:
Otto
Gracie
Godzilla
Rufus
Jack
Twiggy
Hazel
Tori
Murci
(9)

Southern charcos: ~8k. Rufus was the lone dog on the leash as we left; his crazed excitement at the gate dissipated quickly once we were on the road but we're going to have to change up how we wrangle him to try and get the total energy level down... it's a little too much like a rodeo sometimes. It's overcast, blustery, a bit chilly and there was a spluttering mist in the air as we took off: perfect weather for a high-paced run with this group. I didn't want to go more than 8k with Twiggy and Otto along but that was plenty. It was a fast group but we kept running into serious flooding in the monte early on that required us to slow it down and slog through. The current was running north to south between the charcos that are spanned by the southernmost crossing, which is odd - it usually flows the other way, but today it was almost a torrent going in the opposite direction. There were many clusters of flamingos in the charcos to the south, probably taking refuge from the weather in the relative calm of the monte but it was plenty windy; there were piles of salt foam being blown around on all the shorelines from the wind whipping across the flats. We took the berm across to the swimming hole and there was a lot of enthusiastic horsing around in the water through that whole area. We took the cut-over to the alt. land bridge on the way home. I put Rufus on the leash just as we were nearing the end of the dirty road because I heard voices and a moto somewhere close by. Sure enough Angel (he of the chickens) was parked with some dude on moto-trike right at the shrimpery intersection. I kept my charges in check verbally and everyone was perfect; Murci barked once and stopped when I told her to knock it off. I was even able to exchange pleasantries with Angel as we rounded the corner south heading home. The wind took care of the bugs for most of the run and the cooler weather helped keep the pace up. Nice run, good dogs.
GRADE: A