It’s been an interesting few days for me here in Bemidji.
After furnace troubles and a dead battery in my vehicle, I was looking forward to Saturday’s 5K Polar Challenge and logging some miles beforehand.
Out on a warm up run, I headed west on 10th Street Northwest to the Buffalo Hill trail before heading north. As I ran, I greeted a woman out walking her dogs, both of whom were on a leash. And even though I moved to the center of the street, I was still surprised when one of the dogs became aggressive and lunged at me.
And bit me. A surprise since I greeted both the woman and her dog, who just seemed excited and tempted to run along. Since I was in the middle of the street, and the woman standing on the side holding the leash, I didn’t think there was enough room for the dog to actually touch me, let alone put a 4-inch gash into my thigh.
It was a bit startling, and I knew her teeth made it through my running pants. But with 2 other layers underneath, I figured the chance of breaking skin wasn’t very likely. I didn’t even break stride and just kept on going. About a half mile later, I felt a burning sensation where the dog attacked me.
Still, I finished the warm up, and arrived at the race with a few minutes to spare.
The Polar Challenge, which had an awesome turnout, was a blast, and considering I ran a marathon 6 days earlier, I was happy with a solid effort on slippery roads. Afterward, I chatted with a couple runners, including a West Fargo runner visiting family in the Bemidji area. More often than not, particularly at the shorter local races, it’s these conversations that make it worthwhile to show up and run.
After returning home, I finally checked the dog bite – surprised to find a huge gash on my leg. After calling Ask-A-Nurse and chatting with police, I headed into the hospital for shots (ended up they gave me 3 different ones). The nurse kept telling me it would hurt, so I finally said to just stick it in and that I doubt it could hurt much. I was tired of sitting around for 3 hours, particularly since I was the only one at the emergency room. Even the needle, injected into the wound and wiggled around to get the disinfectant inside, seemed barely noticeable.
The doctor told me that I’d have have a series of 5 rabies shots if I couldn’t find out if the dog was vaccinated. Police officers told me and hospital staff that they’d have a difficult time tracking down the woman, which I found hard to believe. It can’t be that difficult, I figured, so after an afternoon in the hospital, I drove back to the neighborhood. Within 5 minutes, I found the dog owner and met the dog that bit me. Thankfully, she has updated vaccinations, so I won’t have to go through any more shots.
Overall, an interesting end to an interesting week, but today I’m looking forward to meeting up with a runner for 9 miles as he’s starting training for a marathon. It will be fun to meet yet another runner in the area, and keep my mileage up as I look forward to piling on mileage for upcoming races.
Click here for results from the 5K Polar Challenge.
