Running news

I haven't written about running lately because, frankly, there's nothing much to report. Campbell's taken taken to waking up at o'dark-hundred every morning, and I can never tell whether he's going to go back to sleep for 15 minutes or two hours. If I do run these days, it's with Campbell in the jogger, and while I love having him along for the ride, pushing the jogger stinks.

Wednesday morning I ran a quick 1 1/2 mile out-and-back in the neighborhood and then did circuit training - lunges, squats, step-ups, crunches, etc on the front lawn, followed by a lap around the block. After each lap I'd stand outside Campbell's window and listen for screaming. He woke up while I was on my second lap, so I finished up and headed inside.

I don't feel comfortable leaving behind a possibly screaming baby because you could drive a freight train through our bedroom and B would sleep through it. I'm not exagerating. When I do leave the baby behind, I put the monitor next to B's ear and turn the volume up to 11. This morning, according to the girls, they had to go get B to tell him Campbell was up. This doesn't help my nerves about my upcoming trip. But that's another post for another time.

Anyway, I headed down to the trail this morning for the first time in what seems like months. I got there at 6:20 and didn't expect to see any running friends, which was just fine with me; I wanted to run my own thing. But as I was headed across the MoPac bridge, I saw Cristina, who convinced me to turn around and at least say hi to the rest of the group. Long story short, they convinced me to start out with them.

I ran the first two miles with Anne, Cristina, and Shannon, and I felt surprisingly strong, especially given that I was chatting with Cristina the whole way. The girls were headed off onto surface roads for what ended up being another five miles, so I stuck to the trail, finishing the four-mile loop.

It was definitely the right choice: I finished feeling good and like I had accomplished something. It was a better run than many of the ones I had this summer when I was supposedly in better shape than I am now. Perhaps all the miles with Campbell in the jogger are paying off.

In the end, it was the perfect Saturday morning run for me. I had the chance to visit with friends and the chance to run by myself. The only problem is that I'm already sore. I hate to think what I'm going to feel like tomorrow.