Running with Friends

Last week Karen e-mailed me to ask if I needed some company on a long run this weekend. She's currently training for the Moose Mountain trail race and needed to run for about two hours with a hill. I had 12 miles on my schedule. I figured the company would be terrific, so we decided to meet at Glenmore Reservoir at 7 am on Saturday, along with Karen's friend Giovanna. We decided to run the north side of the reservoir first since it has less tree cover so it would be better to get it over and done with while it was still somewhat cool outside. About 5 min in my overactive bladder started acting up, so I was really glad to see the Mac's just after the first mile. We stopped off for a quick break, then got back to running. The time was flying by and I was in charge of calling out the walk breaks, but I kept missing them because the time was moving so quickly. We were all keeping pace really well together and this was turning out to be a slightly faster long run for me. I think Giovanna is actually much speedier than us, but she just wanted to be out running with someone and wasn't too worried about the pace. At 5 miles in I scarfed an espresso Hammer Gel down. Yum, that thing was actually good! Definitely my most favourite flavour and brand so far. We finished the route leaving the big hill for the end and we all powered through it. I felt so strong running up that hill! We had about 7 minutes left to go to meet Karen's 2 hour request so we recovered on some flat ground and finished up with 10.7 miles in 2:00:03. Afterwards we all went to Primal Grounds for some delicious food and more chatting. It made for a really great morning, so major thanks to Karen for organizing the group run! Giovanna is moving to Nashville at the beginning of August and she's keen to get as many runs in before leaving Calgary as possible. She's even volunteered to keep my company on my 18 miler this weekend! I rounded the day out with some hot yoga, a massage, and my share of three dozen oysters and a fantastic bottle of wine. That is my idea of a fantastic day..!