The squirrel paparazzi

There was a minor flurry of traffic on Twitter this morning about the run today and #coffeechat. There's a bit more of an overlap than I thought; several people were planning to head out for their run after coffee. 

I was running with two buddies on a super beautiful day. We got met up ok, and headed down toward Fish Creek. Michelle and I have done this route several times, usually when it's minus WTF out, but today was warm and sunny, starting about 5 C (41 F). I wore shorts, as you'll see. 

Both Michelle and I took photos, but I'm too lazy to arrange them in order. So you'll have to put the story together yourselves. Some of you may have seen this. Last year the floods washed away part of the path. There is a well worn detour off to the right side of the photo. It wasn't even terribly mucky on my new shoes.

This is on the way back, M and S running ahead.

And there she is in action! The squirrel paparazzi! It was so much fun to see M having fun on the run today. She stopped to take photos, and skipped along in places. The pace graph has these huge spikes in it for our pauses, BUT WHO CARES! (Channeling Ruby Rhod)

This is Sophia just finishing up her 16 K run. Look at that happy smile! She is going to totally rock her race!

This is one of M's. She was trying to get a reflection shot of us, but I think we're too far away.

We stopped about K 12 or so to play with some photos trying to get one of each of us running with both feet off the ground at the same time. I don't here, of course. Almost. At least my back is straight and my butt isn't poking out.

M is so talented, she took this actually running at the same time. That smile says it all about our day!

We were still playing with the position of the phone here. What do you think, is that an actual muscle in my left leg?

Two shots just as we met up at Anderson and 37th, me showing off my pasty white legs. (Yes, I know, you were hoping it was one of the others showing off their legs. Such is life.)

I like this shot of us. It's typical for me, in that I've got a drink in my hand, you can't see my eyes, and I'm leaning to the right, but this time it's me and not the camera person. You can speculate what Sophia is doing with her hand. It looks like we're holding hands, but we're not. Anyone else I'd suspect she was trying to pinch my butt so I'd have a funny expression on camera. But Sophia would never do such a thing.

This certainly one of the best runs so far this year! Did I say it was warm and sunny? We ran, and chatted, and did photos, and waved to a big Running Room group out of Shawnessy,  and generally had a really good time. We weren't in a rush, nobody was fussed about a particular pace. My new shoes felt great. I put the graphs down below for those that like such things.

My legs felt pretty good throughout, with a few minor squeaks towards the end. Lots of stretching after, and as I'm writing this I've got a wine bag of cold water on my lap, while sitting on the vibrating heating pad. Drinking coffee. That will please the #coffeechat crowd. I may pay for this in a sleepless night and if so I will be back on twitter in the wee hours.

Wonderful chicken dinner after the run! And cookies. And banana bread. Then another trip to IKEA, where we saved yet more money. I figure between the two trips we have saved $16,000! Can't complain about that. We made out like bandits, with a harried manager approving a sale price on things that (technically) were not included in the sale.

Even walking a bit creaky because of the run today, I'm still walking faster than most of the people in the store. It's good I was still in a good mood. There's a path through the maze painted on the floor. Some people don't understand that this path is for motion. Either way is good, though keep right still applies. There is a ton of space to stand off to the side to consider how some item will clutter up your life. But NO! They have to stand at natural choke points. I don't know why.

I watched one couple squabbling at the delivery counter, giving the guy a hard time about the delivery costs for some big packages. Duh! The price is right up there on the wall. First it was reverse the purchase. Then it was rearrange plans to take the stuff home themselves. Even as they were doing that, one of the guys was saying it was better to pay the delivery fee. I'm not sure how it ended up. We got our stuff added into the existing delivery, for only a little extra.

I made a point out of being really nice to the guy arranging delivery, to balance out the jerk. I do not understand why people are so unpleasant to people that could be helpful. Mostly they want to be helpful, and will do so given half a chance. It's not like you have to kiss their ass or anything. Say hello, please, and thank you. Smile. Give them a moment to get that last experience put away and have a chance to focus on you. Have the paperwork handy. State what they need to know without going around the mulberry bush three times on non-essentials. Let them go through the computer or paperwork without yapping at them. Understand they have many rules to follow, and they don't know why something is a certain price.

Here's the data from Runkeeper. I'm a bit surprised, it seems to have kept track of the stopped time. The spikes in pace are mostly where we stopped for photos. When we ran we were really consistent. Such a great run for all involved!