Tagging along

Today I'm enjoying a break from the hospital/clinic thanks to it being my preceptors day off and it being a physician's golf outing that his partner is attending. Why anyone would want to golf in 90+* humidity in July is beyond me, but I've never really liked golf.
I started off my day with a long run seeing as I'm running a few more half marathons and signed up for a marathon this fall. I was plodding along the country roads when a medium sized black dog comes running up to me. I stopped, waited for it to leave, but it playfully tried to jump up and scratched me. I decided to keep running since I had a few more turns to go (I was just over half way done). I figured the dog would get hot, bored, turn around, and leave me alone. I was mistaken. It followed me the whole way back (5 miles!) despite my attempts to dissuade it by stopping and saying sternly "no, stop, go home!"  It didn't understand that I was not interested in a canine running buddy today. It didn't run right next to me the whole way, it would run off and stop to sniff at things along the way. I thought for sure it would be distracted and go away eventually. It seemed like a smart enough animal in that it would stay out of the road when a car came along for which I was grateful because I was not eager to take responsibility for it. Yet, it was dumb enough to run miles with me in this heat/humidity. It was slobbering up a storm from all its panting. When I got back to the farm, I went inside to shower and have breakfast and ignored it completely. I had other things to do today than worry about someone else's dog. I like animals especially dogs, but I wasn't a fan of a strange one following me on my morning run. It was kind of annoying. I was worried it would mess with the old cat that lives around here. When I left the house a bit later, I didn't see the dog hanging out so maybe it did make the trek back. It didn't have a name tag to identify it on the collar so I couldn't say for sure to whom it belongs.
Some days in rotations, ok - most days, I feel a bit like the dog, a bother, just tagging along. I trail the providers I work with as best I can... Seeking to please and often failing. Not always understanding and getting distracted easily by everything that's going on around me. Mostly just trying to keep up with the pace and stay out of the way so I don't get hit. By the end I'm exhausted and in desperate need of a drink. 
Most of the rest of the day I've been studying. Taking a relaxing study break. Study. Break. More break than study. My brain needs time to let it all sink in.

Events

Today I got a late start to the morning. The clinic opened later than normal because they were participating in a community event advocating for the prevention of childhood illnesses.
I had the opportunity to do a wart removal cryotherapy treatment. It even meant wielding a scalpel. Yikes. Slowly, but surely I'll get better at this business of caring for all sorts of health related things.
Also had a site visit today. I can't believe I only have 1 week left before I jump into an entirely new rotation. I've seen more than 100 patients already. I have my ups and downs, but mostly I'm loving it. It's reassuring that I've found a career path that I'll enjoy for a long time.
Sometimes things make you wonder more about the parents than the kids. We saw a 4 year old who still uses a pacifier and there's really only so much you can address in a 15 minute time slot.
This weekend I'll be in the Milwaukee area, running a half marathon! I did the same one last year and it was miserably hot, but they've made some changes for this time around. Here's hoping for good weather and strong legs that last the whole 13.1

Bellin Run

While I'm recording my travels and adventures this year, I'll write about what I do on my limited days off. We don't get many breaks in PA school. So when you do, you have to take advantage of them. On other rotations, I may be expected to take call so I may not even have weekends off. It makes it hard to plan my schedule in advance no doubt.
This weekend, I went to Green Bay to visit my family. I haven't seen them much this year because of school. We had a good excuse to come see them this weekend, because it was also the 36th annual Bellin Run. It's a 10k road race that I first did 11 years ago. It's a lot of fun because it's a community event. All throughout the 6.2 mile course, people play music and have sprinklers, squirt guns, and hoses running to keep things cool and fun. Something like 18000+ people registered for the race making it the largest in the state and one of the top 5 biggest 10ks in the USA. It was a hot one with temperatures at the starting line already 76*F with highs predicted to be nearly 90*F for the day. I don't always like big road races, but this one is definitely one to do. I had good company to do it with; my parents and cousins ran - they ended up in the paper and even on the evening news! They're fast and famous --finishing in the top portion of their age groups. As for me, I was fighting a cold, so that slowed me down a bit. Plus I didn't want to push it much in the heat having seen what heatstroke looks like last year - it's not pretty. For a relatively shorter race distance, they still had people collapsing and needing to be pulled off the course for medical attention. Even so finishing in the top 1500 out of 18000 people isn't anything to sneeze at. 
I must be crazy if I think a day off should include running a road race, but I enjoy it. Signing up for races like this one, keeps me running and active. On the days when I don't want to get my butt off the couch, it gives me motivation to get out of the door. Obviously it's good for my health and well-being as a stress reducing activity too. Plus, it's something my family enjoys so it makes for another way to spend time together. As I mentioned, we've been doing this sort of thing for years. What do you think I should do next weekend?