Karen and Whiskey (the dog)

Every morning when I wake, I have our beautiful big black dog anxiously awaiting her morning ritual of a fast pace 3.5k walk around the neighborhood. She is always ready to go. She has no excuses of why she can't make it. It doesn't matter what is going on in the day. It doesn't even matter if I am training for a marathon, the first 45 minutes of my day is spent with my best walking buddy, Whiskey.

We rescued her from the SPCA about 6 years ago . She is getting older, but still has the energy of a pup sometimes.

I have tried many times to run with her and it goes okay, but it is a little awkward. She can't go much more than 5k without fading. My form suffers a bit because I am holding the leash, and every now and again a pheasant, or an alluring smell will capture more of her attention than me. I totally expect and accept that. I mean she is a dog really, and I believe it is the best part of her day, next to eating and sleeping of course.

I've been seriously wanting to train her to run with me sometimes. At least for a little while. Ideally by the time I hit marathon training next summer I would like to be able to safely run with her for at least 5k and on my longer days I could drop her off at home and continue on to complete my mileage. This way I wouldn't be walking the dog and then running. Not that I mind doing both, but one of my intentions this year is to workout smarter.

I started researching running leashes a few weeks ago, and came across a site called irondoggy.com To my delight, they specialize in hands free running leashes and have had many outstanding reviews. They are for strong, stubborn dogs who sometimes have a mind of their own. No hesitation here! I ordered one up right away.

When my new leash arrived, I was so excited to try it. I felt like a little kid with a brand new toy, BUT, my realistic side reminded myself that this won't be perfect, and there is snow on the ground. I decided that we would walk before we run.

So off we went onto our dark,snowy morning route. Indeed the first few blocks were a little chaotic. The leash is designed to make dogs feel like they are free. Then when they get too far, a bungee cord corrects them back.

Whiskey was so joyful! I played around with the adjustments so that we could find our most comfortable leash length. She kept looking at me with happiness and delight in her eyes as she sniffed the ground and ate the snow all while sticking with me.

I decided to go for it. I wanted to see how it would feel to run with her hands free. We were on a safe stretch of road and it was uphill, so ideally that would take some of the speed out of Whiskey, or so I thought.

I let out the leash to the longest length and started to run. Soon, she was running way out ahead of me and the leash was almost stretched to the max. Just as I was thinking that we weren't doing it right, I realized she was pulling me up the hill. It was easier to run, so I kept going for a few more blocks. I laughed out loud when I realized how funny we must have looked. Anyone need an extra reindeer?

So now I have gone back to plan A and I am training her to know exactly where I want her, so that when the snow is gone, we will be ready to run together. Until then we will just keep practicing. Happy winter:)