Running the Trails

Last night, Mike and I took a long run on the Rock River bike trail since it was such a nice day out. We parked at the trail head and after a 1/4 mile warmup walk, we took off running. The trail is nice and flat, without much noticeable elevation changes, which was nice since we are so used to hill running around our house.
We ran 2.5 miles to the waste treatment plant at the other end of the trail by Afton. Knowing that I had to run back to the car and I had never run that distance before, I took a chicken-out break and walked 0.2 miles at the turnaround. Then we were off again. We ran back and continued on back to our car. All told, we had 5.5 miles of moving time, including the warmup walk and chicken break.
That was the biggest run I have done and surprisingly, it was also the quickest pace I had ever done. It was a great day, kind of cool but comfortable and it just boiled down to the right balance of desire and energy. I am pretty pleased with myself and am itching to do it again already.
Next time, I am bringing dog spray. I was shocked by the amount of people walking their dogs off leash. We first encountered a HUGE German Sheperd that was excited to see us coming up the road. There were several others along the way, all shapes and sizes, but were all unleashed and loosely supervised. One little dog took off and ran alongside us for quite a distance. I wasn't going to stop and lead him back, perhaps his owner learned a lesson about controlling his pet. I am neither afraid of dogs or dislike them, but I think it is terribly irresponsible to bring a dog out in the public arena and let them run loose. I have 2 dogs of my own, they are lovely friendly temperaments and I would guess would never intentionally hurt someone or scare them. I would never put that to the test because, despite their good temperaments, they are DOGS not humans. Someone running up on them or riding by on a bike could spook them or scare them and they could react defensively- I want that heavy leash on board so I have some hope of controlling the situation if I have to. I do not want to be the runner that scares a dog and makes it bite me after it's owner waves, smiles, and hollers "Its OK - he's friendly!"
While I'm at it, why can't people pick up their dog poop on the trail or at least lead them to the side of the path to do it? I dodged more piles along the centerline last night, I'm lucky I didnt end up doing the poo-poo slide!