Cathance & Pancakes, November Edition

In the early summer, when we hosted our last Cathance & Pancakes run, Ryan was injured. So I led the group out on the trails. This time around, it was my turn to stay at home, hang with Sam and get the food cooked up while Ryan showed the group some of the new trails he's been exploring beyond the Cathance. Sounds like he came up with a great route!

Kate, who is recovering from a great run at Stonecat last weekend, stayed behind with Sam and I. Kate is just the kind the teacher I hope Sam has when she gets to school age - I was impressed that she was updating a blog of her classroom's activities for the week so that the parents could keep up-to-date with things, and she brought over 2 of the IPads that her classroom had been issued, just so that Sam could play on them for a while. Most of the apps were a bit too advanced for Sam, but she did get a kick out of an app that let her finger be the "crayon" on the pad. We also sang a few songs. Thanks for keeping us company, Kate, and for being so good with Sam!

Kate also helped me with the cooking, and it's a good thing! There is no way I could have gotten everything cooked up without help. We looked at the pile of food we made - 2 plates piled high with pancakes, 2 lbs. of bacon, sausages, plus what others had brought, and figured it would be more than enough. Well, I have obviously forgotten what a crowd of runners can eat :-) We were back to the stove for a few more rounds of pancakes, bacon and sausage within minutes of everyone walking in the door! But it was great fun, and always nice to have a chance to catch up with everyone!

While I didn't get to join in on the running part of "Cathance & Pancakes" this time around, I did get out for a run before everyone came over. I donned my Inov-8 road shoes once again, and headed out on the Highland Green loop. I had no real plans for what sort of run this was going to be, but I felt good, and somehow it turned into a fast one. I didn't quite manage to negative-split all five miles, as the last mile is back uphill on the powerlines, but it was close. 8:22; 7:53; 7:44; 7:26 and 7:45. Felt nice to push the pace a bit. And what better thing to do after a nice morning run than make pancakes and hang with friends? :-)

Now it's onto an afternoon playdate and dinner with Morgan and Kristen! Might as well cram the day full of fun, right?!