Girls' Night Out

Amy, Kelli, Lindsey, and I got together for a weeknight run tonight. The weather was perfect, sunny and in the mid-50s, and I was eager to get back in the groove after nearly 3 whole days off. We started right downtown and ran on city streets for a while before crossing over a highway and dropping down near the river--which would have been nicer if the river weren't so stinky. The bugs were also out in force (bugs + contacts are NOT a good mix!). We were supposed to run four miles, but we weren't sure where we should turn around, so we timed it with my watch and turned around at about 23 minutes.

Lindsey had to make a pit stop, which gave the rest of us a good excuse to walk for a few minutes so we wouldn't get too far ahead of her. On the way back, we had to run up a long, long hill. I got pretty out of breath by the end, but it wasn't too bad. I think my local Giant Hill is steeper. Once we got back into the city, it leveled off quite a bit, and we ran the last half mile at a pretty good pace. As best as I can figure from the rather lousy maps available on-line, we ran 4.2 miles in 46:23 for an 11:03 pace--pretty good considering we did some walking.

Of course, having been good and put in our miles, it was time to reward ourselves. Kelli took us to a fun pub-restaurant a few blocks away and we enjoyed a drink and some dinner. They had Paulaner on tap, so I had one with a turkey club and enjoyed it immensely. We laughed and ate and drank and discussed all sorts of things in lurid detail and had a great time.