A Girlfriend Run

I love random days off in the middle of the school year.  I especially love when my non-teacher friends also have those days off of work.

Today, two of my bestest girlfriends and I took advantage of our rare time off and hooked up for a nice jaunt around the 'hood.

AM, BFF, and me (cheesin' it up, obv)

We headed out on a five-mile route that the kiddos and I were supposed to run on Saturday.  However, due to the raging storms that have been hovering around Des Moines this entire weekend, the Saturday run did not happen.  And, interestingly enough, this run was questionable as well do to incessant thundering and sporadic showers all morning.

Luckily, we were able to find an hour of storm-free time to get our run on.

We met at the school and headed out toward Drake University, hurdling puddles and branches the entire way.  In the middle of the city, we passed a lovely babbling brook:

I'm not sure if this brook is always babbling, but it sure was after our inch of rain last night.

We continued east to the campus where we found some mild storm carnage on the grassy knolls:

Oh, Drake, how I have missed you.

It was actually nice being back on campus, as I haven't wandered that way in quite a while.  And after spending five and a half years there (for my bachelors degrees as well as my masters), it was nice to be back.

We were going so fast that the picture blurred.  My apologies.  :)

We didn't run down the painted street, but we still got a nice (albeit wet) view of what the students did over Relays.  Ah, vodka-filled memories.

And we continued further east toward Sheslow Auditorium and the back of Old Main, my favorite building on campus...

...and the sun dial, which is absolutely gorgeous when the sun is shining and the tulips are in bloom.

Once we turned south and got to Kingman, we headed back west to our starting point, but first we had to hurdle some downed trees (and some flattened opossum and squirrels):

We rounded out 4.8 miles in just over an hour.  While it's certainly not our fastest time in the books, we got out there and did it, and we had a blast doing so.  (And considering I got my butt whooped at Farrell's this morning, I'm okay with this time.)

I can't wait to suffer through 12.4 miles of Dam to Dam with these girls next weekend!

Wish us luck!

But for now, since there's yet another lull in the crazy weather, I'm off to grill some burgers with The Boy.

I hope y'all had a lovely, relaxing weekend!  See ya tomorrow!