I was looking forward to today’s run, knowing I was going to get to go with my 16 1/2-year-old niece, Emily, who is on Cross Country. I know that Emily is a very nice girl and that she would go slow for her old, fat aunt, and that I wouldn’t have to worry about holding her back. It would be charity work on her part and I was fine with that.

The good news for me was that she had a hard CC practice the day before and wasn’t up to a ‘long’ run, so we agreed on a short run. Perfect! And, although I could have gone at race pace, I figured if we went a little faster, it would make up for some of my missing speed yesterday and I could once again call myself ‘even’ with my training schedule. We did 2.67 miles at 6.2 mph. Not too shabby!
She took me on a nice, wooded path, but did share that they had recently found a dead body in the woods, yuck! I got to run through the damp fall leaves which was definitely a change from my usual desert scenery. Thanks, Emily!