February Running

I wasn't sure if I should title this post 'February Running,' or 'February Lack of Running.' Towards the end of the month, I was finally cleared to start some short, easy, runs to see how things felt. 

Wolf Flats:

Wolf Flats is always a good 'go to' winter running spot. The conditions are usually pretty good. I started out with an easy four miles, and Mark kept going to get about 12 miles that day. 

It's good to be back out there!

Is it even a Wolf Flats run if you don't see an eagle?

So many herds of deer.

It was a very cold morning. The temp was sitting around zero, but the 'feels like' was definitely in the negatives. Lots of the river was frozen.

Wolf Flats:

The following weekend, Mark and I did Wolf Flats again. This time Joyce was with us, and since she's an animal magnet, we saw TONS of animals! A moose, hundreds of deer, a fox, wild turkeys, a couple eagles, and lots of trumpeter swans. I pushed my distance a little more this time, and got 10.5 miles. I did a lot of walking, and took it pretty easy, but everything felt pretty good. I can still feel the stress fracture spot when I'm done running, but it isn't painful; just kind of there. Joyce and Mark got 18 miles, so they should both be ready to go for The Pulse in a couple weeks.

It's been a rough winter for the wildlife. They've all had to come pretty low to find food. This moose was just napping with a huge herd of deer.

Tricia-Joyce

Such a pretty area.

Women's Runs:

I've missed going to the Women's Runs, so it was nice to be back!

Cider Bend Valentine Run:

We did a Valentine run at Cider bend! Mark made sure the path was clear for us, and we did a few laps around the property. Afterwards we did pictures with the donkeys at the kissing booth. So fun!

One of the ladies got this picture of the back of the barn all lit up as we were running the path.

Chaos and donkey kisses! I love showing off my cute girls. They hammed it up and had smooches for everyone!

Willow loves having friends over. While the ladies were running, she kept going outside looking for them, wondering why they weren't in playing with her.

The River:

We had a nice run around the river.

Xiaofei's Farewell Run:

Xiaofei is moving to Colorado, so we were going to have her final run with us on Trail Hollow. We made it almost up Sunnyside to the starting point, and the road became too sketchy to continue. We had cars in the group that couldn't make it, and the rest of us were afraid we'd get up there and end up stuck. We had a whole line of cars that had to turn around on Sunnyside and head back down. We ended up doing a very icy run around Hawks Landing and Founders Point. I thought about the crazy conditions we were running on, and then saw that we had 9 ladies there doing it, and I was amazed at how hard core this group of ladies really is. Crazy ice was not gonna stop us from getting in one last run with Xiaofei!

Amanda-Jennifer-Xiaofei-Bobbi-Nora-Steph-Ashley-Cheryl-Tricia

We're sure gonna miss the sassy, spunky, energetic fun she has brought to our running community.

That's it for February. Fingers crossed that March brings a lot more miles out on the trails.