Sunday funday run

Sundays B and I usually meet up and do our longer runs together.  I was excited to finally feel comfortable enough to wear my Newtons for a longer run. Up until today, 4 miles was the longest I would wear them for, but considering I run so often in them, I thought 8 or 9 would be a good upgrade.
As I leave my house to head to B's I didn't realize its was so warm outside- SCORE! Head back inside to change into a skirt. Got my stash of new runnings skirts in the mail yesterday- Running Skirts is having a sale where all their skirts (both running and athletic) are $20.11, so I had fun shopping through what was left over.

Once I get to Bs we decided to do our usual 9 mile loop where we run by Belmont University and the infamous music row. Since we generally do this loop every sunday, we decided to mix things up and have fun- because after all, it doesn't matter how fast you go on your long runs, just that you get your mileage in.

Just a little background on me, I am obsessed with taking pictures with inanimate objects, mascots, funny signs, whatever. When I lived in Louisville, I would go around the city trying to get my picture with as many of the Derby gallapalooza horses as I could. ( there are hundreds and more come out each year for the Kentucky Derby) Up to date I have pictures with 118 of them, and dorky as this sounds, everytime I go back I try to get at least one more

So Louisville is known for the Kentucky Derby, and in Nashville we have the nickname 'music city', thus guitars around the city. I got my pic taken with the main guitar on Broadway when I first moved here, and never had the desire to search out for the rest of them....

... until today's run.  Last few days I've been dealing with a lot of personal issues that have been bringing me down, and I finally vented about it at the beginning of the run to B (thanks for listening) To liven things up, we decided to find random things to take a pictures with, including guitars!

"Heartbreak Hotel" ~ Saw this gem outside the building where  people meet to hop on a tour bus and drive around and gawk at famous people's house. This one took a couple tries and in the mean time a tour bus pulled up and emptied out- I felt so cool standing there lol- but I did get a compliment on my shoes. On our way to the other guitars we passed music circle and I FINALLY decided to sit down with piano man and help him play a tune!

B really wanted to sit on his lap haha

We normally stop at this point for our gu, but since we were goofing off and feeling good, we decided to push it till our next guitar stop

Double Dose of fun! 

Rock on! 

Despite all the hills, of course, I'm  feeling pretty good so we pick it up to our next stop- the statues in front of Belmont University's cafeteria (which was surprisingly busy for a Sunday)

can't tell so much in the pic, but B put her gu in the guy's hand.

Looks like hes saying 'STOP!'

 We changed up our route a little bit to see if we could find more fun stuff- unfortunately no. Shortly in between mile 6-7, my feet are KILLING me. Its like I can feel the lugs hitting the ground, as well as everytime my heel slightly strikes the ground- ugh. There were a few times I had to tell B to go on ahead of me so I could walk for a few secs and then just strided it out to catch up to her. I'm getting kind of nervous if  these shoes end up not working for my races, not only because  they're expensive, but I was hoping so much they would prevent my feet going numb like they always do for my halfs. Guess I need more practice running longer distances in them.

Because we did all the stopping and photo opting, some of our mile splits were in the 12 or 13 min range (ouch) So for the last 2 miles we picked it up to run 9:25 splits each- was great to finish strong. 

The best part of the run- it was nice to just be able to enjoy the sights and have fun vs. chasing a time or a certain mileage. I think its important to be reminded of why we started running in the first place, I  know that I was today! 

* side note, I found $40 toward the end of the run, icing on top of the already delicious cake!