A day off for my husband today meant a small slice of alone time for us. Getting open time like this where all three kids are in school/activities for at least 4 hours feels like a huge gift and we almost always choose to go on one of our favorite dates...
A Trail Run Date!
As many of you know, my husband is my favorite running partner. We try to run together as often as we can and I've written about several of our trail run dates here on the Asheville trails in May and on the Wildwood Trail in Portland a couple of Octobers ago. We've run many races together too. One of our favorites was the Foot Traffic Flat marathon in 2011 (his first and my fourth) where we proved to make a great team and finish in a happy 3:24. If I had to choose anyone in the world to run side by side with for always, it would be him.
Living in Asheville, NC means plenty of beautiful trails to run on. And ever since my first 30k trail race back in May, I've craved as much of the forest running as I can get. The trails here are different than those in Portland, Oregon. I wouldn't say that I love one more than the other because they both have their unique beauty and I love my time running on both of them. The one big difference about the forests in Asheville and Portland is that most of the trees here in Asheville are deciduous whereas so many of the trees in Portland are coniferous. So, whereas Portland stays GREEN and lush year round, Asheville is approaching it's brown and bare season once winter comes. We're taking every opportunity to hit the forests this autumn before winter sets in. And what a perfect time of year it is for trail running!
Today we tried a new trail in Bent Creek that led us up into some of the prettiest parts I've seen yet. Some of the trail was quite STEEP and we did some quick walking rather than running. It was good practice for the ultra my husband wants to do in the near future.
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| Pretty sure this was my best Superwoman pose. Yeah, not a good one. Guess I'll consider other career options. |
Since moving to Asheville, our date life has dwindled just a bit. That's what we get when we move to the complete opposite side of the country as the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Not only did we leave family behind, we also left our babysitters. Free babysitters at that! We weren't about to just go home after our trail run. We used our extra 1.5 kid-free hours to eat in Asheville at a new restaurant (for me). By the way, if you ever visit Asheville, it is a great place to eat good food. Lots of fun restaurants. I'm not sure I'll get through them all before we have to leave. But that will just be a reason to come back often to visit (while we leave the kids in Portland with their grandparents).
We chose a little spot called Salsas. You wouldn't know it from first appearance but this place has some delicious delicious food. Wow! We had blackened salmon pilon and the best chicken burrito ever. Oh, and some really yummy beer. I don't usually drink beer before noon but today was considered vacation. And something about running through the forest that makes me want to drink a nice cold beer afterwards.
I'm putting this Monday down in the books as one of my favorites. Life just keeps getting better and I can't wait to see what else in in store. For now, I'm enjoying the present...especially days like this where I'm reminded of so much that I love.
1. Do you run on trails? Are their trails near where you live?
2. Do you run with your partner?
3. Don't forget to check out the Asheville Marathon as a possibility for a spring race.
Amanda
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