Happy Run

Every Monday night, my local running store, Active Soles, puts on a free run, that they call the Happy Run. My friend, Brooke, and I go almost every Monday night. Tonight, however, Brooke was tied up at work, and couldn't go. Work kept me pretty busy today too, so I didn't have time to go home and get Daisy like I usually do. So tonight I ran it by myself.

I love running with friends, and I've said before that Brooke is pretty much the perfect running partner for me, because we run at about the same pace. Except when we are sprinting.  That girl has a fast sprint.

But I'm ok running by myself too. I wasn't really by myself, because there were probably 50 other people running tonight, but I didn't know any of them. I just plug in my headphones and run.

I was worried my legs would be too sore since I ran 3.5 miles on Saturday, and another 9.3 yesterday (I'll tell you about those runs in the next couple days, but they were awesome). My legs held up just fine, reminding me that while I may not run fast, I can run for a long time.

There are two different routes that Active Soles use for the Happy Run, and the route alternates every week. For each route, there is a long and a short version. I pretty much always do the long run, unless I am having problems that day.

Tonight the route took me through a neighborhood in downtown Palmer, and down an empty stretch of road with a field on one side and the little municipal airport on the other. At the end of the route, you turn left for the shorter version, to head back into downtown. For the longer version, you turn right, run down a long, gentle hill, under a road, and across a bridge over the Matanuska River. I LOVE LOVE LOVE running across that bridge even in the dark.

At the far end of the bridge, you turn around and head back to downtown. All told, it's just over 4 miles. The official distance is 3.9, but I think that's just to the bridge, not across it.

The paths were pretty icy tonight, and the wind was blowing like crazy, so I ran pretty slow. But once I turned towards downtown and the wind was at my back, I was at about mile 3, and everything felt right, so I kicked it into high gear and ran fast the rest of the way. It was a great run, and I felt awesome!!