Friday, September 23, 2016

Quintana Roo’s Rescue Run Race Report




Hi, Roo here. I really love my new life and my new parents. I learned that dogs in my family sometimes write race reports. It’s taken me a while since this is the first one I’ve ever done, plus, my parents usually keep the door to the office closed, so I had to figure out how to open it before I could get to the computer.
For anyone who doesn't know me yet, this is me-- Quintana Roo Herrick
Pretty much every morning I go running with my mom. Usually it’s 2 miles. I really love it now, but at first it was a little scary because we go early in the morning when it’s still dark outside. I couldn’t figure out why we had to go in the dark, but I think I have it figured out now. Most mornings my mom has to go somewhere called “work”, and she likes to run with me before “work”.
Since we’ve been running most mornings, she said I was well trained for the Rescue Run 5K. I heard her tell Melissa my old foster mom that I might just go crazy with all the other dogs or try to run 6 minute miles the whole way. I do like other dogs, and I do like to go fast :) But I knew I had to try hard to be good.

We got to the race site and parked in a big open field, the field was full of awesome smells! We walked over to the tents and race area and lots of people petted me and said hi. My mom made me sit and wouldn’t let me say hi to any of the other dogs, there were lots of them! Then Melissa, Boots, Banjo and Aspen showed up- Yay! I hadn’t seen them in a while. We took some pictures and I tried to meet a few other dogs (my mom said I was being bad pulling to meet other dogs, but they were fun and I just wanted to say hi and play).
Hanging out with Melissa, Aspen, Boots & Banjo before the race
Finally it was time for the race! We got out on the street and lined up. Then we ran!!! Yay! I ran fast because there were people and dogs in front of me and I wanted to be FIRST! My mom kept pulling on my leash and telling me to slow down…I didn’t want to, but I did anyway, so she’d be happy. But it was really hard to go slow with so many cool people and dogs in front of us! Finally my mom said ok, and we ran kinda fast for a while.
Going FAST at the beginning!
But then nature called! My mom told me lots of times to go to the bathroom before the race, but I didn’t have to go then! So we stopped just before mile 1 for a potty break. At the 1 mile mark we stopped again for a water break. After that I found a nice black & white spotted dog who ran the same pace as me, so we ran together for a while. Just after mile 2 (and another water break) I saw Melissa and her pack waiting for us (how did they get ahead of us when they were walking?) So my mom said we had to walk with them, I really just wanted to keep running, but I walked for a little bit.
Melissa took this picture, just before we walked with her
Then the spotted dog and his dad passed us, so we ran with them again. When we got about ½ a mile from the finish, my mom said, “Ok Roo, we can go fast now!” So I went FAST!! I heard my mom say “Roo, I can barely keep up!” So I ran faster to help pull her to the finish! I think that was my favorite part of the race, running fast to the finish!
Running to the finish
After finishing, my mom said she was super proud of me for finishing my first race! And I had so much fun! We didn’t hang out after the race very long because it was about to start storming.

When my mom saw the race results she said I’m good luck, we finished the race in 36:56, she said that’s pretty good for walking some and taking water and potty breaks. But she was really impressed that we were in the top half of her age group, and the top half of the race overall, that’s pretty cool!

Just after finishing
I had lots of fun at my first race and I hope I get to run more races. My mom says maybe I can run the Turkey Trot (I hope so, I want to chase turkeys!!) if I can train up to 5 miles. I definitely can, I love running.
Thanks for reading, hope I get to meet all of you soon!

--Roo