It’s official – Alex is done with his big 200 mile bike ride to Portland! He finished STP (Seattle to Portland) on Sunday afternoon after 11 hours and some minutes of biking time. He left our house early Saturday morning and rode with his friend Nigel down to Castle Rock, Washington, where they camped overnight before embarking on the second day. Now that he has recovered and is still on his “bikers high” he is plotting to do “RSVP” which is Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party – it’s a 180 mile ride in mid-August. We’ll see what he decides…
We are hoping to get some of the official race photos of Alex – I have seen a few and there are some great shots. Stay tuned…
While Alex was riding his bike to Portland I was taking care of our injured puppy. Jackson ended up hurting his knee somehow and began limping quite noticeably on Friday afternoon. Alex and I agreed that if he woke up on Saturday and wasn’t walking normally that I would take him into our regular vet’s office. As it turned out, Jackson woke up still limping and was acting extremely lethargic.
I was able to get Jackson an appointment at our vet at 10 and the vet was able to quickly determine the problem. Poor little guy had torn/pulled a muscle in his knee. The vet confirmed there were no broken bones by doing an x-ray, then prescribed Jackson some anti-inflammatory meds and requested that I ice his knee. Once we got home and Jackson took his meds I had him continue to rest while I went for a run, then came back to find that my puppy had returned to his normal happy, energetic self.
Sunday morning I woke up and hung out with Jackson before meeting my high school friend and Seattle neighbor, Sasha, for brunch before heading down to Portland. As always, it was great to catch up and re-connect with Sasha.
Jackson came with me down to Portland – we reserved a room in a dog-friendly hotel and he was a hotel champ! The hotel was very accommodating and even had a sign at the front desk welcoming Jackson, and they gave us a little packet that included treats, extra bags and listed a local dog park.
Portland is very dog friendly, so luckily it wasn’t an issue that we were asked to not leave Jackson in our hotel room unattended. There were a few restaurants close to our hotel that offered patio seating for dogs. We were so impressed with how well behaved Jackson was – it ended up being much easier than we had expected.
In other news, Jackson is 16 weeks old and he is a puppy preschool graduate! Last week he passed his graduation test at puppy class and will advance to puppy kindergarten, which starts next week.
Jackson learned a fun new trick last week. He knows “high five” and every time we tell him “high five” we still get a kick out of it. It sure is fun doing training with him.
I got a bunch of new running gear last week and have been testing it out ever since. I went to a store called Road Runner to get fitted for the best pair of running shoes for me and my feet. They recorded me running on a treadmill and measured my instep, as well as fit me for a custom insole, then had me try on a few pairs of shoes to see which one I liked the best. It was an amazing experience, other than the pretentious salesperson, and I am so happy with my new running shoes and all of my gear. I had a fantastic run today with Ali – we ran/walked 7 miles and I am hopeful that I can keep it up.
