Another scheduled run - down the drain

In case you haven't been following the news - the Wisconsin State Capitol, located in Madison, is the center of major protests.  Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people have descended on the Capitol for the past 3 - 4 days to protest the Governor's repair bill that is up for vote in the State Legislature.  This is the same state Capitol building that was aglow in green and gold just a couple of weeks ago to honor the Superbowl Winning Packers.  Now the building has been the centerpiece of protests, lead my many teachers and state employees.  The local public schools in Madison have been closed due to low teacher turnout for the past 3 days.  Many, if not most of the other public schools have been closed at least 1 day and most of them 2 days due to low teacher turnout.  

The repair bill contains measures to control the budget shortfall, by among other things, making public workers, pay a share of their pension costs and increasing the employee's share of health costs and disallowing the unions from negotiating for these benefits in the future.  There are other aspects of the proposed bill, but in my opinion, those are the items that are causing the protests.   

Due to the protests and all of the activity happening downtown, the event organizer and the City of Madison have decided that this weekends WinterFest will be cancelled.  Although some activities are going to be held on the UW campus, the run that I registered for has been cancelled.  This wasn't just an ordinary run - I had registered for the 5k Frosty Dog Jog with my sweetie, Sophie.




While I am disappointed that the run is cancelled  - this is Democracy at work.  Whether you agree with the unions or the Governor  - protesting is a right in this great country.
But dang - running with Sophie was going to be a blast.  So instead, we went out this afternoon.  We ran 5 1/2 miles and let me tell you - it was tough.  I just wasn't feeling it and it was super windy . . . it seems I am always mentioning the weather.  ;-(    I like to say that the weather is, what the weather is.  I usually don't worry about it much.  But it was really windy and there were some pretty strong gusts.  This should at least count for 1 1/2 times the miles.  ;-)   Besides me not feeling it - Sophie was not her normal wonderful runner - instead she was a crazy dog.  We are still experiencing warm temp's, today it was 40 and all of our snow is melting.  I would imagine that there are a lot of smells and those smells must be over powering for her 'cause she was CRAZY.

But as the saying goes . . . while you will probably regret not running . . . you will never regret going for a run.  I am very glad we persevered.

ENJOY - hoping that things settle down at the Capitol.