Making the Long run....longer....but making the long run

Yesterday the twins celebrated their 10th birthday.  We had company drop in.  My sister came over with her husband and brought funny cards for the girls (this has become a tradition and always brings laughs that are shared throughout the year).  She also brought something that was in fact to be shared ....but ended up being pretty much hoarded by yours truly.  I did pass the bag around a few times but I stopped short of putting it in a dish on the table for all to enjoy.  What did she bring?   The name does NOT speak of what is in the bag.  I think Trader Joe's should be chastised for calling them Peppermint Pretzel Slims, as the eater of these babies would be anything but slim.  The bag (which is only 170g) contains a whopping 840 calories of blissful indulgence and oh man did I ever indulge....i stopped short of licking the bag but it took willpower...:)....this stuff is really really good.  I believe my next stop to Bellingham will include a visit to Trader Joe's and I might just stock the snack shelves with this little beauty.

So irun to eat...and with a long run put aside I knew that today was the day to get it in.  Of course there was that early morning hockey game on the North Shore to get the girls too.  I  originally thought I would run the Mount Seymour Parkway after dropping the girls off, but we had an impromptu sleepover and I had four 10 year olds in the car with me this morning.  With a busy day of running errands before returning to work tomorrow my running took the back seat today.  I did manage some me time; but not of the golden running variety.  

It wasn't until the late afternoon that I paused and realised the day, which weather wise had turned out to be pretty darn good, was almost done.  The girls were eyeing their Rollerblades and knowing that we should enjoy the weather while we it was still enjoyable, I said gimme 5...threw on my gear and we were off.  They both said they were fine with a long run/roll.  We left the house at 3:00 and returned home at 430....we ran for a good hour and 15....but we had multiple stops.  I know this definitely goes down as a bad training week, but there were a couple of really cool things that I discovered.  While Grace likes to keep up a constant pace, Rachel likes to go in spurts and often lags behind taking in the view and saying hi to everyone she meets.  So I could circle back to Rachel and then run to Grace then sprint for awhile while Grace tried to catch me.  It kept us all together in a kind of circle that gave me a bit of speed work and shook it up a bit.  The highlight for me was at one point through Queens Park, Grace sprinted ahead on the path.  I started to chase but realised I needed to circle back to Rachel.  I did this and then as Rachel and I  crested the hill  we spotted why Grace was in such a hurry.    The Park was calling.....making the long run longer....but definitely making the run.