I really enjoy running with others. Weather it's been the Thursday morning runs from the store, the Saturday marathon long runs, or an impromptu get together of friends, running with others helps pass the time and control pace making long runs easier. If possible I try to run with others.
This morning I woke up early and wanted to get in some miles. Erin was out late and doesn't run on Sundays so that was out. Rachel and Maggie had already run their long runs this week and were probably still sleeping. Rick is still a little banged up from arrowhead and while I was sure he'd be up and willing to tag along I didn't want him to aggravate his issue. So I filled up my hydration pack, dug out the headlamp and headed out into the dark. It was about 35 degrees out when I left home with wind at around 17 mph from the south west. I hadn't decided on a distance yet, but knew I would be doing at least 6 miles to get my weekly total up to my goal. To the south and west of here is mainly highways so I decided to head through town. There's a dark gravel road not far from our house that I've recently discovered and decided to start there. The wind was not that unpleasant as it was far warmer then it has been for the past couple of months. As I went down the gravel road I thought I heard something in one of the pine trees along the road. I wasn't really worried, but a little curious as to what had made the noise. Was it an animal? The wind? Perhaps just an echo as I ran past. I wasn't able to figure it out so I kept going and when I reached the end of the gravel road decided that I would head to the store. I had thought about using this route to the store on a Thursday morning run to get in a little more distance and concluded that now would be a great time to measure the distance. As I headed into town with the south wind at my back I decided that I wouldn't worry about turning around into the wind as it wasn't that cold out. Deciding not to worry about the wind opened up a lot of places to run and I tried to come up with a fun route for the rest of my run after I had gotten to the store. Yesterday morning Rick had told me about a route he had come up with going south east from the store along the Old Milwaukee trail. I thought that it would be a good morning to try this out so after I reached the store I ran by the Y and around prarriewood meeting up with the Old Milwaukee near Doolittles. From there I ran south and started to pick the pace up a little. I had about 9 miles in and thought I'd get about 15 in with what I had planned. As I ran along the trail I saw someone walking in the distance. I couldn't make out if the person was coming towards me, or going away so I decided I would make it my goal to pass this person. This helped me pick the pace up even more. I was a little surprised as how fast I could go this far into a long run and having done a long run the day before. Soon enough I had passed the walker and was near 40th Ave S. I decided I didn't want to add any more mileage to the route by taking detours and followed 40th almost all the way back to the house. When I got back I plopped down in the snowbank to ice the legs and called Erin to see if she'd bring out a shake for me. We chatted about the run for a bit outside before she helped me out of the snowbank and the mornings adventure was complete.
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