Melting Hills and a Surprise

On our run yesterday, Katie and I had made plans to do hills today.   As the morning wore on and I hadn't heard from her, I figured I'd write and see if she still wanted to go - only to discover she had been pulled into a long meeting and was on her way to yet another right at noon.  I almost jammed right there...as I wrote to her on our inter-office chat

But then I went and got changed...and sat contemplating jamming for a little while longer.  Then I pulled on my shoes and went out to run them anyway.

trudging down the stairs...

My thought was that I would warm up and then run along Sacramento, counting off streets until I hit 6...then I would run up and down all of the hills and work my way back the way I had come.  Mindless and easy-ish.

I powered my way up the first hill - making sure to lift my feet a bit higher and throw some leg strength into it.  For once, I was starting on the more difficult hills and working my way to the easier ones - so I might as well put some heart into them.

After flying down that hill - I lightly jogged to the next and repeated the process.

Then it was on to number three.  I was losing a bit of steam from the heat, but carrying on.

As I came down hill #3, I saw another runner at the bottom...and then the sun hit her red hair and I saw it was KATIE!!!

Her meeting had wrapped quickly so she hurried out to catch up with me!  What an awesome surprise!!!

Her timing was perfect - I was starting to seriously melt and lose steam, but together we gabbed away the last 3 hills and got them done.

In the end, it worked out to 20 some minutes for her and 5k for me.  

It is so amazing to have weekday run buddies now.  For so long, my weekday runs were solo endeavours and my long runs were my chance to be with friends.  Now, it is like the runs have reversed and I am really loving it!  I still like the occasional weekday run to really push it on a workout, but it is always nicer to have company!

Note - it took 20 mins to stop sweating after this run.  My eyes are still stinging from the sweat dripping into them!  Makes me almost want to invest in an old school terry headband :P