Addicted? Apparently so!

Phil, Joe, and AndyE near this morning's turnaround point
my phone camera leaves much to be desired...

October, as mentioned previously, was a very low-mileage month for me. Today, I burst out of that mode ...somewhat unintentionally. The plan was to meet up with the satboys gang at Coal Creek Golf Course where Joe would lead us out onto a new trail. Joe is famously navigationally challenged, but he had already thoroughly explored this trail plus we all knew roughly where it was so we had a high degree of confidence that we'd find our way there and back. And, when we were deciding on the plan for the day, Joe gave us options of a 6 mile out/back or a 7.5 mile lollipop loop; we chose the 6-mile option. To that 6-mile option, I added roughly 8 miles by running to the rendezvous point from home.

After arriving at the golf course and taking a boat-load of ribbing for all my blinky lights and reflective gear (at least I arrived unflattened after having left home at o-dark-thirty and running on high-traffic thoroughfares!) we set out to find this new trail on a glorious balmy autumn day. We first followed a familiar trail along a creek through a bit of town and into a quiet valley where we arrived at the new trail. Up and up, zigging and zagging we went across high dessert prairie and lo and behold, what a view opened up in front of us - the Continental Divide with snow-covered peaks hovering over the flatirons and foothills. Stunning....and just exactly what I wanted to be doing this morning...running, smiling, wind in my face, friends by my side. Perfect!

And, oh yeah, that 3 miles out/3 miles back? Not unless it took us 47 minutes to run 3 miles. Joe is no longer in charge of distance - in addition to directions. But it was a most excellent not-six-miles!

So why did I title this "Addicted? Apparently so!" ? I arrived back home in the best mood I've been in in ages...singing, laughing, dancing around the house. Yep yep, give me a long morning run any day!