books, running, and friends

Yesterday I got to meet the hilarious Christopher McDougall,

author of Born To Run:

A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen.

I am in the process of reading his book and find it encouraging,

entertaining, inspiring and overall a fun read. If you haven't heard of it, or haven't read it,

GET ON IT! He went from barely running due to injuries to running pain-free and almost barefoot and loving it.  His book goes into his personal stuff a tiny bit (just to give you some history) but mostly focuses on his experiences with other runners, the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico, 

and various races and fun tidbits about this or that.

For a better synopsis and more info, check out him and his book here.

The picture is a little (okay, okay.... A LOT) blurry. But you get the gist.
I also got him to sign my book. YAY!

Today the infamous and mysterious Jessica and I went for another run (this time I have PROOF!).
We went a little farther than we did on Monday and her time got faster.
We started out with some wind and rain--not the most fun, but we had a good time.  After about seven-tenths of a mile we got into the trees and found a whole different world:

The sun came out, rain stopped and the wind died down.  Absolutely beautiful!!
Around mile two we even saw a deer (well, the tail-end of a deer far off).

And proof that I'm not a liar:

I've been feeling pretty good about my runs lately.  Faster times on runs that, at the time, I feel are sluggish and tedious.  I'm starting to feel like I am making some headway.

Except that my knees started hurting after my double-run the other day :(

But...I quit doing my at-home PT exercises.  I have since started them back up and hope they will help. Again.

Tomorrow is Friday and this weekend I am hitting the roads for a 7-miler.  Woo Hoo! The longest I've ran without stopping was 7 miles last September during my half so I know I can do it.

  I'm feeling pretty optimistic.

Happy Running!