10+2= fun & more fun.

I think I'm finally on the upswing from this nasty, nasty cold I've had.  It was pretty touchy there for a bit, but I think I'm going to pull through.  Ha ha.  Actually, it did pretty much take me out of commission completely on Thursday but Dan played the aweseomest (yes that is a word) husband ever role and got the big kids off to the bus and the little kids set up with cartoons so that I could sleep in a bit.  He then topped that awesomeness by managing to come home from work early (as in 2 in the afternoon early) with soup for me and dinner for everyone else and sent me off to bed to take an extremely rare afternoon nap.  It was amazing!  So despite the fact that as a stay at home mom, I rarely get to take full fledged "sick day" I came pretty close and can't complain.

So, with being sick and drained of all energy, my running has suffered a bit.  Last Wednesday, shortly after blogging about how I was never going to get dressed again, I went for a quick treadmill run.  I had 6 tempo miles on the schedule but changed it out for a 4 mile progression run, thinking I would make up the miles later when I was feeling better.  That didn't happen.  When I spent most of Thursday dead to the world and was still feeling winded just standing up on Friday, I decided a couple complete rest days were in order.  That brings us to Saturday, where I had 13 miles scheduled in preparation for my quickly approaching 14.2 mile race.  I wasn't sure I was quite up to the whole 13 but I knew I needed to hit double digits.  Emmeline has been dying to run with me and I keep putting it off, but decided the time had come.  Instead of doing my 13, I planned a nice and hilly 10

then looped back to home to pick up Emme for another couple of miles.

The 10 solo miles went well.  It was pouring and then it wasn't and then it was again... pretty typical Oregon running weather.  Luckily it wasn't too windy and since I left all the kids with Dan I was stroller free and able to tackle the hills a little more easily.  When I finished up my mileage and went back by the house to get my little partner, I was ready to be done and she was raring to go... so off we went.  She booked it up the hill from our house, leaving me in her dust.  When we got back together, I explained a bit about pacing and how if we were going to survive the miles we needed to not sprint the beginning.  "Do you want to go fast or do you want to go far?"  Luckily for my tired post 10 mile self, she opted for going a little bit farther and not quite so fast.

All in all, it was a great 2 mile run.  Our route took us down a steep trail and around Mingus Park, where we had plenty of opportunities to stop and catch our breath site see:

First at the bridge:

 then to check out the ducks:

 then for a self-portrait:

 then to check out the waterfall:

 and finally to "pan for gold"

 what a goofy, goofy girl!

then back up the steep hill towards our house.

Emmeline did a great job.  I was really impressed with her hill tackling ability which included power walking and straight out sprinting.  Overall, she averaged a pace just over 12 minute miles... 

if the course had been flatter, she would've been really booking.  We had a lot of fun together and will probably make our runs together a fairly regular tradition, although once she gets in running shape and starts building up her endurance, I won't be able to run long before heading out with her... she'd leave me far behind.