Hale Freezes Over 5k

OK, let's start out with how awesome Rush did on his second 5k EVER. As some may know, when I walk/run with Rush I can get quite frustrated with him since he'd rather walk in the snow and smell things... he's a scenery walk kind of dog. He's always dragging behind me...

What NINE month old puppy does that?!

Mine.

I literally cannot say "no" to this face.

That was our hike up the canyon earlier this week, quite the work-out 1 1/2 miles up hill! 

Anyways, so this week we did 3 mile walk up and back in the canyon, a 3 mile run, another 2 mile walk up the canyon, 1 mile walk, and a easy 2 mile walk yesterday. So it was quite a busy week with him and today we ran the 5k. As some know, Rush is a shy dog and is scared of most people and prefer to stay away from them, but today we went to the "Hale Freezes Over 5k" and Rush stayed right beside me while I did packet pick-up. We were standing there and we are surrounded by people at these events and some people will just come up and pet your dog without even thinking -

"Oh hey, this big black dog may possibly bite me" 

Every time my heart stopped a little since he'd jump when he realized he had no clue who they were AND THEN they'd start petting him by his face! He did so good he just started licking their hand! He did so incredible from the last 5k in November that we did where the kids asked to pet him and he wouldn't even get near them. Or he'll start doing that little sneeze thing to make them turn around. 

So we go to the starting line and wait 10 minutes before the race starts and as soon as it started Rush just took off wanting to run with all the people! He was absolutely loving every second of it, until we hit about 1/2 mile and he stopped in the middle of the street to take a HUGE dump in front of everyone... Don't worry, I had a poop bag. Right after he did his business he took off again with his tongue flailing side to side with slobber pouring out to about 2 miles! We stopped at a water station and I gave my water to Rush and the volunteers just watched with a big smile one their face saying "Such a cute puppy!" We started running again and got to a huge hill and ran not even a quarter up it and I guess he decided he was too tired to run anymore (I told him not to start out too fast). Looked behind him and saw my mom with Storm behind us and just stopped and waited for them. We walked up the hill and he had a hard time running the rest of the way, he was exhausted! 

He finished though!

He also got a best time, 35 minutes!

Nice work Rushbo!!