Guest Blogger: My year of running with da momma or How I became a runner dog

Hey Y'all, Deuce the aussie here!  Mom thought it would be fun if I Deuce (captain booberry) stepped in today and gave you a recap of running from my side.  This year has been one of ups and downs for my four legged family.

2016 was the year of Stella having IMPA and 2017 was the year of her coming back and me stepping up to the sport I now love, RUNNING!

We started off the year watching Stella become naked as the drug combination of Azathioprine and Prednisone made her loose all of her hair, just like a cancer patient.  I kind of made fun of her a few times, but I was secretly jealous as I have SO.MUCH.HAIR.

Mommy even had to start handling her drugs with gloves to protect her immune system.  It's a blessing that through my mom doing research and her Dr's at KSU relentlessly worrying about her that they found this magical combination of imunosuppressors to get her back on the mend.

In March, Stella started back with 30 minute walks.  Boy was I GLAD she was back doing something active!  She sure did give me a guilt trip every time I came home post running.  She would always remind me that that was HER mommy and HER running partner, but guess what, I was here first naughty girl!

Mom and I were training for yet another marathon. Stella trained mom to the 2015 Chicago marathon, so it was my turn to train her for the 2017 Andrew Jackson Marathon.  Mom also traveled to Tennessee without either of us, which made us sad, but I did enjoy an Andrew free week with my daddy.

In April,  Stella got to start adding mileage and running back to her schedule.  Mom had this 50K thing coming up, and while I wanted to go with her, they didn't allow dogs. Kind of glad she didn't take me with as it stormed and rained and was horrible the whole 32 miles (yes and it even was longer than a 50K).

We took some time off to let mom recover, but then got back to it.  Mom got into Chicago again, so we had to make sure she was ready to rock it!  While I still am not a huge fan of speed work, I have incorporated it into my running routine.  Mom thought about cutting me back on miles once stella got back up to her normal mileage, but she could tell I was enjoying running so much that she couldn't do it!

We even ran most of the summer thanks to getting up at 4 am or even earlier.  YAWN!

Mom also carried lots of water for us and got these nice new little pop up bowls for us to use for drinking.  

Mom also bought us Andrew a kiddy pool to play in and we he took full advantage of it post running.  Mom was not only doing the Chicago marathon, but also this thing called a timed run where she had to complete so many loops in a 6 hour time period.  Since loops are a little hard mentally on the momma, we all helped out by doing our long runs as loops instead of one big run.  This also gave us some one on one time with the momma.

Mommy took Stella to a 5K in august.  She said I couldn't go even though I wanted to.  Mommy said that I like peoples too much and that would be hard for me to race with the peoples and not kill the momma.  Whatever.  

Stella actually got to do 3 races with the momma.  Three 5 Ks and she even pulled momma to a PR on one of them. While I use to be the sprinter of the family, thanks to my super jets in agility, I prefer now to do LSD over fast.  Funny how I figured out the game and the goal.

 I did however get to show the little man how to do my old favorite sport, dog agility.  He has so much to learn to keep up with me!  Maybe Stella can be his agility partner, because I am just too fast for his little brain to learn with!

We love da momma we just don't love set up selfies :).  Probably why the momma takes pictures while we are running.

 I always look like I have been beaten in these pictures, but I swear da momma never does stuff like that!  Mommy not only completed her second Chicago marathon (3rd marathon overall) but also her timed event.  She didn't make her time goals for either, thanks to heat in Chicago and cold and rain in the Wichita, but she did get a huge PR for her 50K time!

I like to think I was a part of that and we all celebrated!

I do love the fact that Andrew is learning more about dog training and how to work with both me and Stella.  We appreciate him being gentle and not getting so excited about everything involving us.  I still need to learn how to not be a shark when taking treats from the kiddo.  

Running wears me out but in a good way.  Maybe some day I can learn not to love all the peoples and I could maybe do a race with the momma!  I have really enjoyed stepping up and keeping mom safe during her runs and have really learned to love running like my crazy sis.  I can't believe I did my first 20 miler this year and can't wait to see what all we do in 2018!!!!

Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!  We at the Red Aussie Crew will still continue to #runyouraussoff!