Our good friend Allison was in town this weekend, and we met up with her Friday for dinner.  Prior to her moving an hour+ away this summer, Allison was my faithful running buddy.  We would meet on Friday mornings (usually), and hit the pavement for a long run.  (“Long” could be anywhere from 6 to 20 miles, depending on what, if anything, we were training for.)    My runs have not been the same (read: I don’t run as far) since she moved, so on Friday night when she asked if I’d be up for a long run the following morning, I simply could not turn her down!  I even violated my don’t-run-two-days-in-a-row rule (I am very injury-prone, but I’ve found that if I take a rest day between runs, I can remain injury-free!)

This is actually how the conversation happened over dinner:

Allison: Are you running that half marathon?

Catherine: The one around Valentine’s Day?  Oh yeah.  I’d forgotten about it, but I was thinking about running it.  It’s pretty soon though… Yeah, I’ll run it.  Are you?

Allison: I think so.  Want to do a long run tomorrow?

The conversation was reminiscent of old Allison and Catherine: the girls who ran races on whims with minimal training.  In recent years we have wised up, started training a little bit harder, and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.  Beginning to train for a 13.1-mile race that’s a mere 6 weeks away?  Old us…but also happening.

Considering that most of my runs lately have been 30-35 minutes for basic fitness, I was very pleased with our distance, pace, and how I felt at the end!

After the run, Andrew met us at Starbucks for some post-run breakfast sandwiches and coffee.  My sandwich of choice is the reduced-fat turkey bacon/white cheddar/egg whites on whole grain English muffin.  So good!

Finally, much to Andrew’s embarrassment, Allison humored me by taking a cheesy photo with me.  For the blog 😉

Happy Saturday!