Rusty's parkrun PBs

My doggy girl ran a new PB at parkrun this morning of 26:51. It was rather chilly, which is always good for running faster times. This is Rusty's 6th parkrun and her time has come down by five minutes since early May.

I was a bit surprised by today's result as I really thought that we were closer to our usual 29 minutes. There are a few spots where she loves to sniff so we lose time and neither of us were pushing nor tired. Her previous PB - from two weeks ago - was 27:52, a minute faster than her time before that.

When I first got Rusty - almost five months ago - she was quite unfit as she hadn't been running for at least 18 months. We've been building up steadily. Initially we would run-walk on our evening outings. Now we run all the way. I generally don't run her much further than 4 to 6km, which she handles very well.

I don't run her every day. I usually alternate with one day being a run and the next being a long, fast walk. Once a week we head out to my friend's place at Otters Haunt, where she runs off lead with her friend Rocksy (Otters is a great place to stay for the weekend - and they're dog friendly).

Karen recently received a surprise gift from her husband Graeme - a new border collie puppy, Skallywag (her name inspired by the SKA project about which Graeme is writing a book). Karen has two border collies, Shadow and Rocksy. Shadow is very aged, Rocksy is mature but still full of beans. Rusty and Rocksy are friends and young Skally has taken a shine to Rusty.

Playing with Skally while Rusty looks on. Photo by Graeme

This week Karen, my mom and I headed out with Rusty, Rocksy, Skally and Tansy - Graeme went riding his bike. He snapped this photo of us with the dogs (Skally only just visible behind Rocksy).

Photo by Graeme

This morning at parkrun there were FOUR border collies. A young boy runs with his black & white, Willem and Lelani (Lelani is Rusty's vet) have two rescues (brown & white and black & white) and Rusty was with me. Skally will start parkrunning when she is a little bit older.

Tomorrow Rusty will join us at Rietpoort. We're scouting the trails for next weekend. Kyla and Ruben celebrated their birthdays (12 and 9 respectively) earlier this month. We're having their birthday parties next week. Ruben wants to do a mountain bike ride for his birthday and has invited three friends. Kyla chose to do a hike and she has invited five friends. We'll do Kyla's party on the Saturday and Ruben's party on the Sunday. It will be a hike-picnic and bike-picnic affair with the children carrying the munchies for the picnic to the designated point. Should be good fun. Best of all, Rusty gets to come along too.

Rusty has been in my life for almost five months. She is a joy every day.