“Hills” in my hood

Did you see that? It’s me powering up a hill. Yep, that’s what qualifies for “hills” around my neighborhood! It’s probably a “mid sized” hill though. The “big hill” is actually an over pass that’s on my route too.

I was all over the board with my Sunday workout. First, I thought it was 8 miles. You know me, I just “think” of what the mileage is, instead of actually looking at the plan until the day it happens. And my memory is bad. So I was excited when I found out it was actually 6 miles, and I was running it with my friend. 3 miles before I met her, and then 3 miles of chatting. Perfect! I was looking forward to it.

But then, I found out she was not feeling well (boo, sorry Jennifer!!) and wouldn’t be able to run. I was already awake at 7:15, so I had to give myself kudos because instead of sneaking down to my treadmill to watch some TV (after all, it was 28 degrees outside!), I figured I would just get my run out of the way since my running clothes were already picked out and waiting for me, and I’d probably be home before the kids even woke up.

It was just a GA run, which (to me) means, just run it however you want (hope that’s cool Coach!). My run actually felt quite sluggish, but I managed to get all the miles faster than 9 mins, so I was thrilled with that. And along the way I took some pictures. Here is the beautiful sunrise on my route…

I was going to run 6 miles as planned, but then I realized I could turn around at the mall if I ran a little farther. Then I realized I could run “the hill” if I took another turn. And once I’m over the hill, I have to go look at the monument.

Here is the historical portion of my route. On the far right you can see the “big hill” (overpass) that I referred to earlier. Crazy, right? That’s some killer incline. haha That’s why I stick to the treadmill for my hill training.

But the most surprising thing about my run was the view from the top of a hill. What you are looking at in this picture is land that is normally covered with brush and small plants/bushes/grass. However, you see white in the picture. It’s not because that is remaining snow, it’s ice! That ice was on the river hundreds of feet away. When the ice on the river broke up, it was pushed all they way across the road (!!) and into this flat area. Now that’s crazy for sure!! The park was closed, as well as the roads, until it gets removed. I’ve heard that this has not happened in this area since the 1950’s.