What, we run hills! Well, sort of.

It's been a great weekend full of running and hanging out with my boys. Here's the recap:

Friday: I fully intended to underachieve. Really. I didn't mean to run 3.9 miles Friday morning. I only meant to run 3. It just sort of happened. I might have loved it, too.

Friday evening (like every other evening), I had the pleasure to do some totally different running. Running after my son. Every day when I pick him up and he realizes we're home he starts almost frantically saying "cars, cars, cars!" or "outside" or, my favorite "ball," which we all know is a ruse. He takes the ball, throws it down the driveway, then takes off running down the sidewalk while I run after the ball.

He positively barrels down the sidewalk for 2 blocks, where he stations himself at a busy corner to watch all the cars go by. He often points and says "car" or "truck." We get waved at a lot. I love this kid.

Saturday: 10-miler with the Team. The got through the first 5.5 at a pace I was really happy with. Things got a little dicey for a few miles, but I finished strong. Overall, pretty happy with that long run. And then we ate our faces off at Panera. YUM.

I've been wanting to add more running pics. So yesterday when I met the Team and the trees were in bloom and we had amazing weather, I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera.

Sunday: Meg gave me the chance to correct that error when she missed the Team run. She needed to make it up today, so I decided to tag along, ostensibly to man her water stops and be there in case her injured leg gave her trouble (which it didn't). It just so happened to also be a good excuse to catch up with her a bit, cram in a couple extra miles (2.2, to be exact) and get some pictures.

(above: approaching our first water stop/starting & finishing area)

(above: I've never seen these before--metallic looking green and blue flies)

(above: this is approaching our second water stop, around 5.5 miles)

(above: what most of the course looks like)

(above: most of our course is wooded, but part of it runs alongside a golf course)

AND FINALLY...the dreaded hill. Mr. Joanna looked at this and said, "The old you would laugh at you for dreading that hill." I responded that I laugh at myself every Saturday for dreading this hill. Compared to where I grew up this is nothing...but at the end of a long run it's enough to make us groan. And in fairness, this picture only shows the first half of the hill. It continues past the bend. That's the fabulous Meg charging up the hill, almost finished with her 10-miler.

It was at least 75 degrees while Meg did her 10-miler, so to cool off and refuel afterward we went to DQ and indulged. Man, I love running.

177.2 + 3.9 + 10.0 + 2.2 = 193.2 miles (there's some rounding error)