Monthly Archives: September 2013

Zoey goes for her first walk at the Denison Bio Reserve

We decided to take Zoey on her first walk at the Denison Bio Reserve. She had never been on a leash before and we weren’t sure what to expect. She was very well behaved on the 30 minute walk and probably only tugged once or twice. She was very content walking with Nikki and Jonny and keep pace with them or them keeping pace with her.

Zoey at the Denison University Bio Reserve

At the end of the walk we wanted to give her a drink. At the shelter they have a dog bowl and a hose to fill it with fresh water. We turned on the hose to fill the bowl and someone was having too much fun with the hose.

Zoey playing with the water from the hose.

A video of her at the end of the walk can be seen here.

Zoey running in our back yard

So has bonded well with everyone and loves to play. We are all enjoying her very much. She goes on rides all the time and travels very well in the car.

Erin Nance Cross Country Invitational – London, OH

Today Jonny ran in the High School Boys 5K Varsity race at the Erin Nance Cross County Invitational located at the London Country Club in London, OH. This is a High School only meet and will be a short day as the Middle School team is running in the Heath Invitational, in nearby Heath.

Since this is a High School only race, Jonny had never run here before and had never seen the course, which is on the golf course, and is mostly flat with just a few small hills. This race is run with all three divisions running in the same event and then the divisions are separated out later for team results. There were 11 Division II schools participating and Granville took 1st. Again they were not running with on of their top runners and he was given a rest this weekend. Our other top who has been out for weeks did run in his first race in weeks.

Jonny near the finish line

Jonny ran a good race from the start and positioned himself very well from the beginning. With all the divisions running together he finished 83rd in a field of 194. In his division he placed 14th out of 71 varsity runners. He was the 5th Granville runner and earned 14 points for his efforts. Granville’s 7th runner displaced points on all but one other team and their 6th runner displaced points on all the other teams. It really shows the depth of this squad. The Girls Varsity also took 1st place at this meet out of 8 schools.

Jonny passing other runners near the finish line.

The results can be found at the FinishTiming.com website or on the Granville Running Database.

Video can be found here.

New addition to the family!

After Phoebe passed, Nicole start to aggressively look for another Golden Retriever puppy. We were thinking the process was going to take several months as we would find a breeder who was going to breed for a litter. Instead Nicole found a breeder that had one puppy that wasn’t claimed yet. After a couple of weeks of talking to the breeder it was decided that she was going to be a good match for our family. The Breeder was going to be Ohio this weekend, so Nikki and I made a road trip up to Toledo to meet her. We fell in love at first sight and decided to take her home. She rode in the car very well and is very confident and friendly. She even slept well the first night. The entire family loves her and she will be a welcomed member of the family.

New Puppy!

She's definitely a retriever.

Here is a short video of her playing with Jonny this morning.

Bob Reall Cross Country Invitational in Lancaster, OH

Today Jonny ran in the varsity race at the Bob Reall Cross Country Invitational in Lancaster, OH. This is one of the more hilly courses. The weather was in the mid to upper 60’s and very muddy as it had been raining all morning up to about an hour and a half before their race. There were several races before them which turned the grass course in a sloppy mud pit.

Jonny ran well and finished with a 19:04 which put him 76th in a field of 171. He was 6th on the Granville team this race.

You can find the results on Baums Page or at the Granville Aces Running Database

Race video can be found on YouTube.

Granville is running in the Denny Stevens Cross Country Invitational this coming Tuesday at the Kokosing Recreational Area in Fredricktown, OH. Jonny will not be running in that race this year as decided by his coaches. That was the race last year that Stephanie ran that showed a lot character. She ran with the leaders for the first two miles of the race and then her asthma kicked in and resulted in her cramping up, instead of quitting or walking the rest of the way, she continued to struggle on, climbed the last big hill to the top of the dam and still finished the race around the top quarter of the pack instead of the within the top 15. She was devastated at the time, but we were so proud of her that she soldiered on and completed the race under heavy duress.

Galion Cross Country Festival

Jonny ran in the varsity race again this week. He ended up in 60th out of 136 and had a time of 18:09 for the 5K race, a new personal best. He didn’t drink enough before the race and within a minute or two he realized he was a little dehydrated, which I’m sure effected his performance. He was unable to maintain his early position or improve on it like he has in previous races. He did finish very strong at the end and probably moved up 10-15 spots in the last 100 meters. I think he learned a lot from this race and he will benefit from the lessons learned.

Overall the team took 4th out of 19 Division II teams. They were missing one of their top 2 runners and their number 3 runner. Hopefully they will be back next weekend. Their coaches are pretty conservative with the kids health as they realize that these kids have a lifetime ahead of them.

Jonny running at Gallion XC Festival - 09/14/2013

Gallion 2013

Jonny about to start the last 1000 meters

Jonny starts his kick to the finish line

At the finish you can even see the kids he passed at the start of his kick

Race results can be found on Baums Page or the Granville Cross Country Database

Race video can be found here.

Foster Home

The Hamilton family, Stephanie’s boyfriend’s family, had found a litter of kittens while they were preparing to move a couple of weeks ago. They have been taking care of the kittens, but last weekend was move day and they are temporarily moving to a condo while their house is built. They couldn’t take the approximately 10 week old kittens with them, so Stephanie asked if we could foster them while finding them new homes.

Kittens we are fostering

We started with three kittens 1 male and 2 females. The male found a new home almost right away. Stephanie, of course, has grown fond of the dark tourtoiseshell kitten. Our neighbors, who like cats as well, had recently lost their 19 year old cat and were looking to get a kitten or two for their young daughters. I think Stephanie has convinced them to accept at least one of the kittens. Stephanie is happy about that as she will be able to visit the kittens often and watch them grow.

Watkins Memorial McGowan Invitational Cross-Country meet Saturday September 7th

Today Jonny ran at Watkins Memorial High School. This meet they are running the Boys Open and Varsity together in the same race. We have been to this race in the past and it has always been very wet. This time it is dry and should be a nice run. A large portion of the run is in the woods and the kids have to watch out for tree roots and the narrow path which hinders passing.

Jonny finished in 18:24 and was the 4th runner overall for Granville. The top 7 runners are considered varsity with the top 5 runners earning points for the team. The 6th and 7th runner do not get totaled in the team points, but they earn points that displace top five runners on other teams. The team with the lowest point total wins the meet. Jonny earned 42 points for Granville and was very pleased to finish 42 out of 283 runners in his solid effort. His conditioning and speed allowed him to sprint faster and move up 3 more spots in the last 50 meters of the race.

One other thing to point out about this race is that one of Granville’s top two runners was unable to run in this meet. If he was healthy enough to run in this meet, Granville would have moved up to 3rd easily and potentially 2nd overall as he would have placed right around our number one runner for this race. As a matter of fact the athlete who missed this race was our number one runner last week.

Results for the meet can be found at aces.ourhobby.com or www.baumspage.com

His race video can been seen on YouTube

YouTube HD Video

Very sad day for us

Phoebe

Today was a very sad for our family. Our beloved dog, Phoebe, had to be put down today. We found out she had cancer a few weeks back and it finally got to be too much for her. She was a special member of the family and will be missed dearly. We had a special morning with her though. Nikki made her scrambled eggs with cheese and a little chopped steak. We then took her for a walk at the Denison Bio Reserve which was one her favorite places to go, except this time she was off leash and led the entire walk.

We miss you Phoebe.