With a little help from my friends......

This has been a hard week. I haven't been feeling really good all week- some foot pain and some stomach issues. I had been feeling nauseous and had stomach pain off and on all week. I was feeling stress about getting all my workouts in, and I think that just made me feel worse.
I ran 2 hours in Crawford on Monday, and did a light workout on the greenway on Wednesday, then decided to skip my Thursday and Friday runs to rest my foot, and try to fight off whatever was calling my name....
On Saturday, I convinced Jason to go for a run with me.....he had just gotten new Brooks Cascadia's (his first trail shoes), and was wanted to try them out.
Jason runs the Las Vegas 1/2 marathon every year, and takes up running only 12 weeks before and always kills it!!! His last run was last Dec 7th last year, the actual race was his last run!!!
So off we go, heading to the new section of greenway.....he was aiming for 30 minutes, then he would come back and pick me up after 2 hours.
I was also running in new shoes- the La Sportiva Wildcats, and trying out a new hydration pack for Europe- the Nathan Endurance pack.

So after 7km, Jason realized that he forgot to turn around as we were having a riveting conversation about where to stay for the marathon in Las Vegas this year......that and he thought I would tell him when to turn around. (I must admit to being a horrible person, and knew full well that he had already run past his 30 minute goal of the day. Frankly,  I just wanted company!!)
He decided to run the whole way with me, and he did great.....UNTIL the 3/4 mark, then he did NOT feel very good and was looking for a cab at the turnaround........

Do I feel bad about Jason quadrupling his anticipated run time, just to have someone to run with? Yes, yes I do. But we did have fun, and he has two thirds of the half marathon distance now under his belt......

On this note, it brings me to today's run. Greg texted me last night to see if I was running this morning, and said he would be up for an hour to maybe 2 hours.
Greg had just gotten off a plane from France where he was the Physiotherapist working with the Canadian Canoe and Kayak Teams. Greg has also been doing a ton of cycling, just having killed the Axel Merckx Gran Fondo, and has only run a handful of times in the last few months.
Greg and I met at the Crawford Parking lot, where he was wearing road shoes......

We had a lovely overcast morning to run.....ran to Fairlane loop-up to lost lake, then to the KVR (decapitated bunnies were gone, thank god!!), then made our way down on a few new trails to me, and some fun singletrack. By the time I asked Greg our running time (my GPS was dead), he told me we'd been out for 2:45hours!!! Greg was right there with me, running strong and no complaints about being out so long, and severely jet-lagged I may add!!!  We made it down to the parking lot with 3:30 hours of running time!! That would be 1:30-2 hours longer than he had wanted to do!!!!

I think at one point, I shamelessly even joked I would buy him breakfast if he did the whole run with me.......something I forgot all about until I got a text from him a half hour after the run......I owe Greg the BIGGEST breakfast!!!
Once again, I was so happy to have great company and conversation out on the trail that I "sacrificed" another friend (2 days in a row!!!)......I hope both Jason and Greg will speak to me this week!!!
Thanks again guys!!!
I loved my new La Sportiva Wildcats!! They have the same amazing grip that the Raptors have but are lighter, and a bit less support for less technical terrain.
After today's run, it  marks the start of the taper for the race, Sept 3rd.......wow only 3 weeks away now!!!........