Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Happy Birthday, Eli ! !

Many years ago I started running to keep up with Elijah, my Vizsla puppy, on his trail adventures. Today he turns 9 years old.

He keeps his runs shorter these days, somewhere between 3 and 7 miles depending on the heat. Yet he's run in the Sierra, Death Valley, the Mendocino Headlands, and the feared "Trail from Hell" at the Cascade Crest 100 Mile, in the middle of the night with his pacing buddy, Eorl. In his hey-day Eli could run up to 25 miles at a stretch, carrying his own food, and stopping for water at all the streams.

Thanks buddy. You've earned your gray hair.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Eli!! Eorl and I send you birthday wishes and I'll see if I can find a virtual bone somewhere. Eorl actually runs away from me and stands behind Wendy when I tell him it's time for a run. Too many miles in those early years. Anyway, enjoy your big day Eli. Maybe a little run and then a good curl-up next to the fire. Sounds like a pretty good life to us.
Rob.................

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Eli! Love, Shasta

Nice sweatshirt, Sam. Did you take a nap while earning that one? Heather :)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Eli, from our whole family!!

Sarah

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeffery Rogers said...

Heather,

It's not a sweatshirt. It's some kind of fancy-schmancy fleece. And this year I stayed awake during the whole race. It was tempting when I kept passing the spot where I napped off two years ago. Wonderful ocean and city views, lush tall grass.

You ought to practice catching a quick catnap during a race. It might turn out handy in a 100 miler.

Sam