New (running) Adventures

The whole theme of my San Diego move has been to achieve new adventures in my life. This thought came back to me last night as I decided to skip my usual Thursday Dale masters swim/3 mile flat run with Chad because a little bird chirped in my ear. As we were leaving dinner at Whole Foods, Brendan proceeds to ask me if I want to go on a "recovery 6 mile run" in the morning. Brendan (finisher of 310k bike ride to Yuma on Saturday/crazy ironman) asks me (10 min mile runner) to go on a run. I actually laughed at his proposition. Thought about it. Called him back and decided, what the heck, why not?!
So I meet him at his house at 7am where the dog proceeds to wake up his entire house barking at me. We roll out and within the first 3 blocks Brendan trips on some annoying uneven sidewalk and goes flying into the grass (luckily grass and not gravel, and yes I was giggling while asking him if he was okay). Hmm, this is going to be a great morning. Down a hill (how does this work?), ding! I hit my elbow on a pole but we finally made it onto the trail. 10 min into the run and I'm feeling great. Okay, only 50 more min. The trail was pretty wide in the beginning and we were running at a decent pace (correction-a decent 'rachel' pace). Had to jump some rocks through a creek (wow this is cool!) and balance on a skinny trail while maintaining a run trying not to fall down a cement slab. Up a hill, down a hill and back to the decent pace. I check my watch, 44 min in and I still feel good! My only complaint was slight blisters forming on my feet running in my trail shoes rather than my Zoots. Then Brendan tells me a secret; this recovery 6 mile run is actually longer. Like 7.5 miles. Alright, that's 50% more than my longest run. Okay. I can do this. At one point I actually said, "I'm thoroughly enjoying myself!" After exiting the trail there was one more challenge; ascending the hill back to his house. It wasn't that dramatic, we made it to the top and the 3 blocks back to his house. I made it! 1 hour and 8 min of non stop trail running! Now, during Pumpkinman, I will think back to this run and know I can finish that one. Now I have a new adventure from my life in San Diego. Best part of the morning...chocolate milk. Thanks Brendan!
(still waiting impatiently for my bike)