Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Scenes from a Surrey life

I was in a good mood last night. I had a new pair of running shoes which were substantially bouncier than my other pair - a bit surprising as the old ones only have about 500km on them, but (a) that's Asics for you, and (b) having found a shoe that works well with my weirdly narrow feet I'm rather nervous of changing. So anyway, the shin splints had thoroughly cleared up so out I went for the first run in the last couple of weeks. Not a very complicated run - just an easy out-and-back to Kingston Bridge. About 6.4km, if you want numbers.

There's a stretch along the riverside walkway between Kingston and Surbiton which has a gravel towpath right along the side of the river as well as the main tarmac path. I usually use the towpath as it's clearer and you're less likely to get mown down by some cyclist who can't understand the meaning of "NO CYCLING" and, moreover, can't understand why lights are a good idea when it's dark and you're cycling illegally down a poorly lit path. But I digress. It's a nice bit of path - just long enough to stretch the legs out a bit and push the pace. I was doing just that as I passed a couple of people walking on the tarmac path above me.

Bark bark bark! Their dog, some sort of large terrierish thing, shot out after me. Now, this is something that often happens. Fido sees running person, thinks "Person is running! They want to play!" and goes for you. Not usually a problem - usually the owner calls the dog, which will then push off and leave you to your run. But not this time. Oh no. The dog was running around in front of me on the towpath. I couldn't go around as the path is narrow with the river on one side and a bank up to the walkway on the other. Given the darkness it was hard to see, and I didn't want to kick Fido or accidentally push him into the river so I came to a screeching halt.

After a few more seconds of "growl growl! Look at me! I am a dog!" type stuff I turned round and called "Come on!" to the owners. Finally, one of them half-heartedly called the dog. Who ignored them, and continued standing off at me and occasionally running around my feet. The owners drew level with me, and the woman spake thusly:

"He won't hurt you."
"Yes, but..."
"He wouldn't be off the lead if I thought he would hurt anyone."
"Well, yeah, but he's being a pain."
"Pain? He just happens to be my life!"
"He's keeping me from running..."
"I'll tell you who's being the pain!"
"Er.."

The above conversation is paraphrased, but that was basically the thrust of it. So hang on, it was my fault that she wouldn't remove her dog from my path? Her dog, which was still preventing me from making forward movement due to my reluctance to kick him, trip over him or otherwise cause injury? This was one of those short-circuiting brain moments when I start wondering if I'm having a particularly tedious hallucination. Fortunately, her spousal unit (presumably less important to her than her dog, who was, lest we forget, her life) came and retrieved Fido at that point. I encouraged Fido back up the bank to his owner, said "Thank you!" and ran off down the path. I'm pleased to say she blew a raspberry at my retreating back.

Plenty of other people would have been substantially ruder under the circumstances (she could have run into my brother, for instance) so I was, well, a little put out by the incident. It wasn't the dog's fault - dogs have an instinctive desire to chase things and play - but the owner showed no interest in keeping their dog under control, preferring instead to get all offended at me when told that their dog was causing me inconvenience.

Another case of "Welcome to Surrey", I think.

Posted by mpk at September 13, 2005 9:56 AM