IT'S ALIVE!!!

First off, big thanks to my friends Ryan and Danielle for hosting several of us at their place to go running on some nearby trails at the Cathance River Nature Preserve, followed by pancakes, bacon, coffee, and assorted other goodies. Very gracious of them to open their home to us and it was a real blast, and as always I really enjoyed their company as well as the other Trail Monsters. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome group of folks to run with on a regular basis!

That was a guaranteed good time, but what made it even sweeter was an unexpected event that occurred a few miles into the trails. Even though it no longer had even been looking for satellites, I had been using my Garmin Forerunner 305 as a stopwatch. This had been working out okay as along as I stuck to routes I knew the mileage of and could calculate my pace afterwards.

A few miles into the run, I looked down at it and noticed it had started taking mileage readings again! This occurred 2.4 miles into the run, based on looking at other folks Garmins. I'm guessing a loose connection somewhere had been somehow corrected and it's now reading the satellites again. Sweet. Don't know how long it'll last, but I still plan on picking up a Garmin 410 soon.

I also ran in the minimal shoes I'm testing for a certain company (I've been asked to keep things somewhat quiet since they're in the test phase). My longest run in them so far, and over some pretty technical and muddy terrain and I was really impressed with them. Good product.

Went longer than I had planned today (which was around five miles), but the pace was slow and several stops were made because we had a big group, which helps justify the mileage. Felt great overall, but tomorrow will be a rest day as scheduled.

Ran 8.3 miles @ 14:22/mile pace (includes several stops).
Technical trails.
Moderately hilly.
Mid to upper 40s, partly cloudy.
X-shoes, shorts, long sleeved shirt, cap.