A Mother's Nightmare!!

Last night I plopped in bed around 10pm for what I thought would be a night of catching up on some sleep. 11pm my husband walks in to wake me up and proceed to tell me that our dog, Vito, is LOST!!

WHAT??? WHEN??? all questions coming out of my mouth. He let him out shortly after I went to bed and had been looking for the last 30 minutes before he decided to wake me up.

He had been going insane on our deck that evening sniffing out some animal, presumably a bunny, so we were assuming he chased after it and could not find his way back. It was a wet, cold, dreary day and I was worried about my boy being out in that weather for too long. We grabbed our flashlights and split out trying to find him.

First loop in the car and no success, tried walking around on foot to see if he had got stuck or hurt himself. He has had 2 ACL surgeries on his back legs and they are not 100% anymore. AGAIN, no luck. We talked to a few neighbors that were still up at 11:30 and about midnight we decided to call the police to report him missing.

And that is when I LOST IT and began to cry. He had been gone for 2 hours at this point and didn't know what to do, but I couldn't just stay home and wait. I had to go find him!

I hopped in the car again to do another circle and decided I would expand out a little farther. FINALLY after driving about 3 blocks away he came running out from someone's yard. He must have recognized the sound of my car. I was THRILLED, and then ANGRY, but overall just HAPPY to have him back!!

Not exactly the best scenario to have 2 nights before your long run! It took awhile before I was able to fall asleep but I'm hoping that will help me get to bed early tonight in order to be alert when the alarm clock goes off at 4am. I will be strating my run at 5am with Sarah to the start of the Fox Cities Half Marathon, which begins at 7am.

My goals for this race....NONE. OK, I do have a minor goal and that is seeing if I can keep up a decent pace (between 11 - 11:30) for my miles as practice for marathon day. I know my marathon will end up being a little slower since 95% of the race is on a crushed limestone trail instead of roads. But if I'm feeling good halfway through then I may try to pickup the pace and I am going to try and walk very little. I've walked a decent amount on all my long runs but I'm curious if I can cut those back a bit in a race atmosphere.

I just need to tell myself...THIS IS A TRAINING RUN. But my race outfit is up in the air since as you can see from the weather, it will be chilly! I will take this anyday though over a hot, steamy day. This is my kind of running weather!!