Saturday Smiles

It's been a good day. The kind that makes me sit back and smile. And not just because I have a delicious piece of home made apple pie with my name on it to be served heated up and topped with vanilla ice cream. Less I digress. No, I've got plenty to smile about today.

It all started when I woke up at ~7am and checked the weather. For the last few days it has been quite cold and windy. Today, however, it was expected be around 30deg with no wind in the mid-morning. Great news because I was planning to meet the folks in my running group again that are marathon training.

I opted to wear my sugoi mid-zero tights, a thermal headband, a long sleeve sugoi mid-zero shirt over a long sleeve baselayer, and gloves. Brought along my fuel belt with three bottles of accelerade, one bottle water, and my cell phone. Grabbed the ipod and garmin and was off.

They were running 18 miles today, but I only wanted to run about 8. So I walked about 0.8 from the parking lot near their turn point to the spot along the multi-use trail where I would join them. This portion of the trail is popular with dog-walkers, runners, and cyclists and can be almost crowded on a Saturday, but on this cold morning there was no-one in sight. It was a bit eerie.

I ended up running with them for about 8.3 miles. I really don't think we saw more than a dozen people on the trail the entire time we were out there. Very odd. We did a .3 mile walk as a cool-down to the parking lot where their cars were located and one of them gave me a ride back up to the lot where my car was (9 miles away). I felt pretty good while out there, but my knee did act up right near the end. Not quite sure what that was all about, maybe from running on the hard surface most of the way? This is one of the reasons I prefer dirt.

When I arrived home, Husband texted me asking if I wanted to meet him out for lunch. Unfortunately, he got stuck working today. However, a lunch date sounded great. I quickly showered so I could meet him at Pei Wei. Daughter was happy about that too, because it meant I would be bringing home leftovers for her.

After lunch, I checked the mail. Guess what I found? None other than the first issue of my new subscription to TrailRunner along with a pair of defeet socks. Woot! I can already tell that I'm going to love this magazine. This motivated me to take the dogs for a 2 mile walk up the hill. My knee wasn't bothering me anymore, so I'm hoping it will be okay next time I run.

My totals by the end of the day were 8.3 miles running, 3.1 miles walking, a lunch date, 1 new magazine, and a pair of socks. That's plenty to smile about, don't you think?

Now excuse me while I serve myself that pie...