When 13 is Good

Guess where I was this weekend?

With Kim in Guttenberg, IA!

I couldn't mention anything about it on this blog beforehand because my appearance on this trip was a total surprise for Kim. See, this past weekend was her birthday and her husband arranged for my husband and me to join them on their trip to her family's cabin on the Mississippi River. She had no idea we were coming until we showed up at her house. Surprising her was so much fun!

Needless to say, we were both pretty excited to be able to run together on Saturday. I was thrilled to have someone to keep me company as I slogged through 13 miles.



We started out from the cabin and headed along the Mississippi into downtown Guttenberg. People are super-friendly and we said good morning or waved to almost everyone we passed. Once we'd gone about 4 miles we turned around and headed back toward the cabin.

Of course we chatted the whole time but I don't remember what we talked about. Kim pointed out all the sights in town and I enjoyed looking at all the different houses. At one point we were chased by two yipping dachshunds. Maybe they're not used to seeing two people running down the middle of the street?

We were going at a pretty decent clip for the first 8 miles, averaging around a 10:15 pace. We took short walk breaks at mile 3 and mile 6 and then at mile 8 Kim swapped running for biking.



As you can see, we were pretty sweaty. It wasn't all that hot out, but the sun was definitely shining. Maybe that accounted for my slow descent into plodding for the last 5 miles. We did one loop around the adjacent island and then an out and back on another to finish out my 13 miles. I took several walk breaks and then one stretching break at mile 10. Kim kept joking that maybe she should ride the bike ahead of me so that I'd have something to chase. I didn't take her up on the offer, but maybe I should have.



My average pace dropped by almost a minute for the last 5 miles. Also, either all my sweat or the fact that I went inside during our break at mile 8 caused my Garmin to go totally wonky. All I can tell you is that I went 13 miles in just under 2.5 hours with what I think is an average pace of 11:12. I'm very pleased to have broken my streak of my paces matching my mileage on my long runs!

After our run we spent the rest of the day on the beach. You'd think I would have spent it passed out on a floaty and while that sounded grand, I ended up trying two new things.

First I tried tubing!



And then I rode on the back of a jet ski with my husband.



I actually drove the jet ski the day before but I found that riding was much more enjoyable than driving. But I really liked tubing!