Saturday mornings Erin and I run with a training group organized by The Fargo Running Company. The group is aimed at having people ready to run the Fargo marathon in May. Friday night, just after I've gone to bed Erin comes in with my phone and tells me I just missed a call from Rick. I call him back and learn that the group run is canceled because of the weather. So much for my plan to run to the store and with the group. Oh well, I turn off the alarm and decide that I'll sleep in. When I finally get up Saturday morning my body is screaming at me "WHY AREN'T YOU RUNNING". It's been quite a while since I've missed a Saturday long run. I look at the weather and decide I don't really want to go out with the wind as high as it was. I also decide I am not going to run on a treadmill for 3+ hours. This looks like a good spot for a step back week. Later in the day I get a text from Maggie about running on Sunday. We go back and forth for a bit before deciding to run from our house Sunday morning. The wind should have died down by then, but it will be a little colder, seems like a good trade off.
This morning we get up and get ready. When I first check the weather the wind is calm and it's 4° out. We finish getting dressed, Maggie comes over and we head out on our way. Although the air is cold it feels quite nice out. We're all dressed well for the conditions and the miles start to pass. Running along the Old Milwaukee trail we can start to see a runner approaching us. I ask Erin "Hey, does that look like Erik?" Sure enough one of our friends from the training group comes running up. We stop and chat for a bit, make some remark about what are the odds of passing each other and then continue on our way. Shortly after that we stop off at my parents house. After we'd made plans to run with Maggie, I dropped off some Poweraid there so we could top off our bottles today. It would up being about the perfect spot along to the route to use the bathroom and fill up. Our route takes us past the store on our way home and shortly after we pass it we see a couple of runners ahead. Kris and Maria, the other runners we normally run with on Saturday are running towards us. We stop and chat with them for a bit and then let them finish the little they have left of their run. Heading south along veterans was rough going. The sidewalk had not been plowed, but most of the drifts were hard enough to run on top of. The occasional spot where we'd break through the snow pack slowed us down, but we made it through without having to adjust the route. The last few miles Erin was feeling a little sluggish, it was the furthest she'd ever gone and a bigger jump then it should have been from the previous week. Maggie encouraged Erin to pick the pace up in a few spots and we made it back to the house still running strong. Erin was kind enough to fill up Maggie and my own bottles and then leaving Erin at the house we ventured out for a few bonus miles. We picked up the pace in places as we started our 5 mile loop, but evened things out with some walking. Maggie tends to run most of her miles on trails and gravel roads so the hard pavement was not treating her very well. We still managed to tough out enough miles to get 20 in for the day. It was a beautiful day for a run and I had a great time with Erin and Maggie.
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