Picking Blackberries and Running Some Hills...

On Monday Linda and I headed up the hill behind the barn with some of the kids to pick some blackberries. Bo the dog decided to come along with us and we got quite a few berries. We even got to pick a few wine berries and try them, I have decided they are my new favorite berry.

On Tuesday morning I was ready for a run. I got Karen to go with me. The pictures I took don't accurately depict the hills that we ran. We got in 3.5 miles but I think there is some sort of hill calculation that would play into it and it should have been closer to five normal Oklahoma-type miles. Plus it was a cloudless, sunny day. There were some trees but not near as many as I would have liked. We got followed by dogs on three separate occasions, including some mean looking yappy little dogs. They were pretty funny though. Thankfully, all the dogs were nice ones.

Thursday morning I was up early and determined to beat the heat and hit the hills again. I headed out solo this time, it was 6:15 Oklahoma time and no one else was up yet. I headed down to the end of the driveway and turned left instead of right. By the way, it was about .45 mile to the end of the driveway. It was all downhill going out and uphill going home. Plus it was gravel. Know what's worse than running on cobblestones at the Cowtown half marathon? Gravel.

I think I'm going to have to plug in my Garmin when I get home to get the elevation of both runs because the pictures don't do it justice. It was damn hilly and it was hard and fun. I love a good hard run and I am so glad to be running hills again.

I only packed my running shoes for the week so they saw some travel, some hills, and some horses. They are in need of a trip through the washer when I get home Sunday.