Trail Alert: W&OD Friday Evenings in Aug – Lost Dog 5K – Bluemont to EFC

[americancyclo]

Start Time: 6:30pm

(from the website)

[pfunkallstar]

Going to run smack into this – fine as long as all the dog poop is promptly removed from hot asphalt. The scent, it stings the nostrils.

[consularrider]

And their watering station is at the Ohio St access point so be kind and slow down. Nice group of volunteers there tonight!

[pfunkallstar]

Riding through this was miserable, next time I’ll go around. Just a few things:

1. 10 foot leash law = 10 feet. Someone had a French bulldog trotting off in a different zip code.
2. Run with your dog on your right, this allows for human-language passing and less leg nipping.
3. Old dude who sprinted at me while I was trying to pass the three-across clump of ladies – WTF dude? It is a 5k?
4. Lady on bike telling me to be patient after hearing me calling 107 passes is just a little annoying.

[rcannon100]

I was at the water table and had just the opposite experience.

1. All Lost Dogs were on probably 6 foot leashes. That’s what the rescue league owns – they dont own flexi leashes. If there was someone on something longer than 10 feet – it wasnt a Lost Dog. I saw no dogs “in different zip codes” – people were pretty conscientious to not put the dogs in harms way.

2. It was a large group of joggers. And I would say that vast majority of them stayed on the right. I was actually really impressed by them.

3. Yes, Pacers had bikes leading the race warning people, and had people in high viz yellow at the major turns warning people and trying to control traffic. I was impressed by the care they took to make this safe. They constantly reminded joggers to stay on the right – and told us at the water table that the water table was one way, only on the way back – so that joggers were not crossing and stopping in the trail, blocking traffic.

End of the day, it IS a multi use trail – and this was a permitted event – and we (cyclists) dont own the trail. PACERS did an excellent job. Yeah, there was a clump of people for a few minutes – but with some patience, everyone made it through. At its longest, it was probably a half mile long. Just as we ask people to “share the trail” with us, we must recognize that we share the trail with them. It was a relatively short inconvenience, and there was the 4MR trail just a few feat away that PACERS was not on.

[rcannon100]

By the way, there is another race Tuesday evening at 7 pm
http://www.arlnow.com/2012/08/06/2012-bluemont-5k-set-for-tuesday/

Bluemont 5K by DC Road Racers
http://www.dcroadrunners.org/sign-up/bluemont

[pfunkallstar]

5. Not enough cats.

[txgoonie]

@pfunkallstar 27435 wrote:

2. Run with your dog on your right, this allows for human-language passing and less leg nipping.

Just FYI – that’s easier said than done. At puppy school, we were taught to walk with the dog on the left, and we’ve spent 10 years reinforcing that behavior. There’s kinda no way to get my dog to stay on the right b/c she knows the position she’s supposed to be is on the left and will always gravitate back that way.

[eminva]

I appreciated the advance warning, rcannon, which gave me just enough time to wrap up my work and get through the course with 10 minutes to spare (according to the announcements I heard the course marshal make to the volunteers). Sorry I didn’t see any dogs, but I figured the best scenario would be to get through there before them. The only problem I had in that stretch was unrelated to the race; I got sandwiched in the middle of one of those impromptu pacelines that I wanted no part of. I just slowed down and eventually they all sped away from me.

Thanks for any other announcements of events; I can plan around them.

Liz

[DaveK]

@txgoonie 27449 wrote:

Just FYI – that’s easier said than done. At puppy school, we were taught to walk with the dog on the left, and we’ve spent 10 years reinforcing that behavior. There’s kinda no way to get my dog to stay on the right b/c she knows the position she’s supposed to be is on the left and will always gravitate back that way.

We learned the same thing and he even still obeys it sometimes. Unless there’s something nice and smelly. Or shiny. I wouldn’t walk my dog on a MUT though. Too many cyclists and fast runners and other what-ifs. We’re slow.

[consularrider]

@txgoonie 27449 wrote:

Just FYI – that’s easier said than done. At puppy school, we were taught to walk with the dog on the left, and we’ve spent 10 years reinforcing that behavior. There’s kinda no way to get my dog to stay on the right b/c she knows the position she’s supposed to be is on the left and will always gravitate back that way.

Yeah, dog is supposed to heal on the left. Why is that? Maybe because this dog training started in England and they drive on the left, so if you are walking with the dog on the left that is out of traffic? Maybe we need a different standard in the US?

[txgoonie]

@consularrider 27481 wrote:

Yeah, dog is supposed to heal on the left. Why is that? Maybe because this dog training started in England and they drive on the left, so if you are walking with the dog on the left that is out of traffic? Maybe we need a different standard in the US?

I imagine it’s a practice that pre-dates cars. I think it has more to do with the vast majority of humans being right-handed, so dogs heeling left leaves your dominant hand free. It’s not ideal with walking past other dog-walkers on sidewalks and trails b/c dogs are so, uh, eager to greet to each other. But when I lived in a place that didn’t have sidewalks, I liked having the dog on the left, b/c then she was farther away from traffic [since we walked on the left against traffic flow].

[Author]

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