I wimped out on a run with a friend Wednesday due to the rain (which I swear stopped the minute I stepped on the treadmill in my basement), so I asked him if we could meet up this morning. He had already planned a run with another friend, but invited me to join them:

"5:30am we do about 5 and you'll have no problems keeping up. there are hills involved."

Key words there are the last four.

There are a few minor hills on my usual running routes, but nothing like the hills we did this morning. (They actually had names for the various inclines, like "butt-buster" hill.) Although difficult, those hills were we're actually kind of, well... fun, in a hamstring-burning, heavy-breathing kind of way.

This morning's run was challenging, but not competitive and it was fun to run with friends -- exactly what my beaten-up runner's psyche needs right now; enjoyable running experiences.