No excuses

That's what I was told when the email about a Tuesday night meet-up for a run went around this afternoon.  "Carol, you have no valid excuses, so we'll see you at 6"...or something along that line.  And they were right, I had nothing! 

So, I walked home from work, arriving at 5:30 (starting late is throwing me off!), changed and left my house, arriving right on time.  Met up with J., MS, DC and DS.  Other than meeting at Eau Claire, we didn't have a plan.  So DS suggested heading west to Crowchild, cross the river, back to 10th St, up the hill and into Crescent Heights, back to Centre St and home.  After setting Mr. Garmin, we were off.

DS and J took off, both being much faster runners.  And DC, ever the gentleman, stayed with MS and myself, although we told him to take off if he wanted (he's a REALLY fast runner, qualifying for Boston on his last marathon PB) but he treated tonight as a recovery run and stuck with us.  It really was a perfect night for run...cool, around -2C - 0C (high 20's F) with little to no wind.  The paths were clear with some icy patches, but no one fell (DC did scare the crap out of me, as I thought he was going down at one point, but he caught himself quite nicely, resulting in 9.5 from the Russian judge!)...Kept our pace going nicely too, until we hit the hill of 10th St.  It isn't so much steep as it is long, and with the walkway not really cleaned off, it was like running up a loose sandy beach hill.  A long, loose, sandy beach hill!  I did walk for about 15-20 seconds, and finally made it to the top.  After letting my heart rate drop back down below 130 (which happens quite quickly now...fitness rocks!), we took off, running past some prettily decorated homes, and the lights of downtown Calgary.  Down Centre St, and back to Eau Claire.  All in all, 10.75km in 1 hour and 19 minutes.

Met up with the Speedy McRunners, and figured out who was running where next, before we all scattered to the wind.  I didn't have anything at home quick and easy to cook for supper (wasn't planning a run when I was planning dinner) so I grabbed the salmon club ciabatta from the Garage, that I had last week.  While everything else in the food court is closed, the Garage kitchen is "outside" the establishment, so you can get the food items to go.  Sadly, not the beer though!  Drat. 

Ate that, watched Glee twice (on the PVR and then live), and got caught up on my DailyMile, FatSecret journal, reading blogs and this post.  I really should be going to bed, but I just can't get my brain to accept that the alarm will still be going off at 5am!!  But here I go anyway...  No more excuses.

Later,