Running Buddies

I love to run.  Actually I love what running does for my body.  And now that I am no longer a spring chicken I am realizing how important running is for my mental health.  Running makes me happy.  Happier when I get to run with my two favorite running buddies.  C and K are fast, really fast.  On shorter runs (less than 4 miles) they can kick my booty.  I don't let them do much more than 4 miles right now, it can't be good for their growing bodies, right?

When we run together I have started taking selfies of us.  These aren't the prettiest pictures, but I love looking at them.  C and K are such troopers.  If I suggest a detour that might add another mile to our route or some significant elevation they are almost always up for it.

Here are the latest selfies from our runs.  All of these are recent, and so, so sad because in two of them I am wearing my headband to keep my ears warm--in June!

Here C and I went out for a nice little 5 miler in the neighborhood.  When I run with him, it is like running with an alpha-dog.  No matter how painful it is for the dog, or how tired, or how thirsty he is, he will still strain to be at the very, very end of the leash.  That is C, he has to be in the lead, by about 30 yards no matter how much it hurts.

We discovered an awesome trail in Moore Park.  It is a trail run, so it is a little more technical than we are used to and the single track is fun.  Big elevation gains on this one, but coming down is soooo fun.

 

 

A couple days later we returned in the evening for another round on our new favorite trail.  Cold enough for a headband and sweatshirts.  C was killing himself to maintain the lead, and K was killing himself to try to claim the lead.  As a result of all this competition I was killing myself just to keep them in my sight...  So we had to play follow the leader.  Every time a new song came on we had to switch leaders and run at the leader's comfortable pace.  It was so much more fun for all of us.  Even the boys admitted that they liked it better without the pressure.

 

 

 

Lucky me, my running buddies are also my biking buddies.  We are fortunate to live in a town small enough that we can bike just about anywhere.  When the weather is warm and we have enough time all of us prefer two wheels to four.  Here is a shot from this week.  I had to go in to work, but we had time to ride.  On our return trip we tried to find a couple geocaches...we were unsuccessful this time.  The girls had no patience for geocaching...