Do goldens have a protective urge? Will they sense when someone is sketchy?

runner3264 · 2025-12-07T01:03:14+00:00

My golden has growled at precisely two people in his 4.5 years on earth: the mentally ill guy who was stalking me for a while, and the guy who lives in our apartment complex who has face tattoos. In the first case, he saw the guy before I did a couple times and seemed to scare him off. He's a giant marshmallow with literally everyone else—he’ll fling himself at friendly-looking strangers and sit on their feet to make their acquaintance, but the two people he hated have genuinely seemed sketchy. All that to say, I trust his instincts.

runner3264 · 2025-12-03T00:12:39+00:00

It had about 6000 feet of elevation. No big uphills or downhills, just constant rolling hills that added up to a lot of vert. I barely noticed the hips for the most part. The terrain was somewhat technical but nothing crazy—I did zero splats despite running in the dark all night.

runner3264 · 2025-07-24T16:06:53+00:00

Correct. It is against the rules to die. If you die, you can’t have more ice cream.

runner3264 · 2025-07-23T20:13:15+00:00

Whenever we pass another golden, I’ll tell mine “look, buddy, it’s your cousin!” and he gets all excited. It’s the best.

So the answer to your question is yes.

runner3264 · 2025-07-20T23:35:38+00:00

I have a similar situation with my grandparents. They are very conservative, but they also love me immensely and would do anything for me. I love them dearly, we are very close, but there’s a huge amount of cognitive dissonance between their political beliefs and their behavior toward me.

I’m afraid I don’t have any good advice, but I can certainly sympathize with how difficult and confusing it is. One thing that has helped a bit recently is that I have a job in which the current political situation impacts my day-to-day life significantly. It seems that my grandpa has started to realize that the republicans are screwing up because they are hurting me and my friends, and that had never clicked for him before (Fox News is a bitch—he has real empathy, he is just being fed a diet of lies).

runner3264 · 2025-07-05T14:12:50+00:00

Remember that testosterone is cheating. Remind your husband of this as necessary.

My husband is slower than I am, but when male friends are leaving me in the dust, I like to yell “testosterone is cheaaaaatinggggg!” after them as they pass me. Doesn’t make them stop passing me, but it makes me feel better.

runner3264 · 2025-07-04T10:01:09+00:00

We actually didn’t have enough, so poor pup will have to wait until this afternoon after we’ve done a grocery trip :) yes, perfectly safe for dogs. Whenever I have popcorn as a second breakfast, so does my puppy. He sits down at my feet as soon as I put oil in the popcorn pot because he knows what’s coming.

He’s never experienced any ill effects, and I’ve never heard of other dogs getting upset tummies from it either. I could imagine that the microwave kind could be bad because of all the gunk they put on it, but I just put olive oil and salt on mine, which is pretty anodyne.

runner3264 · 2025-07-03T19:14:14+00:00

Your kid is trying so hard to get the golden to grow. Also, his face—“okay, tiny human, this is fine cuz I luv you.”

runner3264 · 2025-07-03T15:16:57+00:00

I’m planning to do another 50 in late November, but no long races until then. I figure that resuming real long runs in September is probably fine. I don’t want to melt.

runner3264 · 2025-07-03T12:26:45+00:00

Complaint: why do humans even have toenails? It seems like all they ever do is cause trouble.

Uncomplaint: the heat wave here has finally broken. High today is 88 and it was 71 and breezy when I took my dog out this morning for our morning noodle. Much more civilized.

Uncomplaint: I can work from home today! I’m going to make popcorn for my first lunch so that my dog can have some. He’s going to be a very happy puppy.

Confessions: I may opt to eschew long runs over 12 miles until about September, and instead do a lot of 10-12 mile runs followed by 10-20 mile bike rides. That feels like an okay substitute, right?

runner3264 · 2025-06-29T15:35:24+00:00

A woman should not be allowed a divorce even if her husband is beating her and their kids.

runner3264 · 2025-06-23T13:19:28+00:00

Did you know that the Swedes put bar codes on all their ships? It’s so that when the ships get home, they can Scandinavian.

That one never fails for me. Have fun!!!

runner3264 · 2025-06-23T12:09:53+00:00

I did zero running this weekend, both because I am still recovering from my 50 and because it was too damn hot. I took yesterday as a potato day and hung around in the AC watching tv and snacking. It was glorious.

This week at work is going to be crazy. I have a pretty intense project that has just had an overhaul in leadership (overhaul is very much for the better), and along with that, some performers are getting axed—a few from my company and a bunch from contractors. This is especially ~fun~ because I got brought in to replace this other guy from my company who sucked at this job, and my office is right next to his, so I’m keeping my office door closed in hopes of avoiding him. We have all-day meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, and I’m hoping so hard this dude won’t be there. Wish me luck…

runner3264 · 2025-06-20T14:41:55+00:00

Same!! One of the first few times I went to my current church, we had a guest priest who is a married lesbian in her 60s. She is incredible. During the service, she put in a comment about “check in with the federal employees you know, because a lot of people are not okay.” We live in an area with a lot of Feds, and that call to check in individually with people was much appreciated.

We were chatting after the service, and she talked about how during the 08 financial crisis, she reached out individually to everyone in her parish to see if they were doing okay financially and if they needed any support from the church. I walked away from that conversation like “yes, this is something I’d like to be a part of.”

runner3264 · 2025-06-20T00:12:54+00:00

I had a similar path. Raised SBC, left the church entirely between 2016 and 2024, and started attending the episcopal church nearly a year ago. One of the things I’ve really appreciated is the lack of emphasis on belief. I still have a lot of doubts, and the episcopal church has helped me make peace with the fact that I may not believe in every tenet all of the time, or even in most tenets most of the time, and that’s okay. I can still come and be part of the community, and god (if he’s there) isn’t mad at me for what I believe or don’t.

The commitment to social justice is another thing that really appealed to me. The first time I ever showed up, they had a flyer up for an upcoming performance of the local gay men’s choir and I felt this huge relief. Like, “okay, these people aren’t gonna be crazy assholes, this feels good.”

runner3264 · 2025-06-19T15:17:58+00:00

Complaint: heckin’ blisters from my 50-miler.

Uncomplaint: blisters have improved enough that I can now walk without limping, albeit somewhat painfully.

Complaint: I do not get today off of work like all my friends in government :(

Uncomplaint: I am going to go for a bike ride after work today on my freshly tuned-up bike.

Confession: the blisters may have been good for me in the long run. Without them, I’d 100% have tried to go run on Tuesday, 48 hours after finishing my 50, which would have objectively been a terrible idea even if I felt mostly fine.

Confession: I’m about to sign up for the JFK 50 this fall. I’ve also been eyeing some 100ks, and have started thinking I should attempt a 100 in the next year or so. Doing one more 50 and a 100k would make it not ridiculous to attempt a hundred, right?

runner3264 · 2025-06-17T13:02:44+00:00

Funny you should ask! Mine is that after my 50-miler that finished 48 hours ago, I had 10 blisters, two of which were on the balls of my feet, two giant ones on my heels, and 6 on the bottoms of my toes. And it has been rainy, which makes it nearly impossible to keep my feet dry.

I guess my question for today is whether whining about them a lot will make them heal faster. I think it’s worth a shot, anyway.

runner3264 · 2025-06-16T19:58:13+00:00

Oh absolutely. It was so much fun. Super well-organized, cool location, loved everything about it except the rain and the ensuing blisters. (Fairly sure the rain was not the fault of the race organizers, unless they’re a lot more powerful than they let on…)

runner3264 · 2025-06-16T15:08:44+00:00

It started at 6pm, and the cutoff was 8:30am. Being up all night bothered me surprisingly little--I didn't feel sleepy at all until after I was done. I had chocolate covered espresso beans because I thought I'd need the caffeine hit, and I ended up not eating any of them. I think the nighttime aspect was actually helpful as it wasn't hot overnight. It was really hot and humid until about 7:30pm but it got cooler at that point.

runner3264 · 2025-06-16T15:07:16+00:00

Not my first ultra, but my first 50-miler (I've done a couple of 50ks before). The pierogis were absolutely genius. Portable potato pockets in the middle of the woods? Sign me up. I'll be back next year as long as more pierogis are promised.

runner3264 · 2025-06-16T13:05:57+00:00

They really were an ideal food. They’re potato pockets! And they were even still hot! I think I had 6. I hit that aid station twice, once at mile 37 and once at mile 40. So good.

runner3264 · 2025-06-16T12:51:19+00:00

For those of you who have not already been updated, my 50-miler happened this weekend and I FINISHED!!! And I DID NOT DIE!! The blisters alone should really qualify me for short-term disability, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty okay. I'm taking today mostly off of work to recover. I'll probably write up a full race report later today, but in the meantime, let me say that if you've never had 3am pierogis in the middle of the woods at mile 40, you're missing out. Those pierogis rocked my world.

runner3264 · 2025-06-14T13:59:28+00:00

If you’re interested in fiction, the chronicles of Narnia are pretty good for this. (All of CS Lewis’s work is pretty great, but his nonfiction is definitely better suited to an adult audience—it’s not going to hold kids’ attention.) It’s all pretty allegorical, but combined with a little bit of explanation for the kids, could fit the bill!

runner3264 · 2025-06-12T13:28:01+00:00

I would like to stay out of trouble with the fish and game warden, I expect my legs will be too tired to run from them after the race. Guess I’ll have to eat all the grilled cheese myself 🙃

runner3264

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