Why is the first mile always so tough??

It's always a great day when the weather is cooperating and you can hit the trails!  Today was such a day. I pulled up to Michele's house in a great mood!  I chose to wear my BRIGHT neon yellow jacket that is sunny and cheerful.    I jumped out of the car and Michele is already outside yelling...."why do we always match? Is it in our DNA?"  Funny, she is wearing the EXACT same color.  Hey it's her house, she can change.  But she doesn't.  Secretly she wants to be like me! Matchey Matchey!

We headed out to Camel's Back today for an easy 5.5 miler.  We parked at the lower parking lot and headed up towards the nature center.  Both of our legs were burning and we felt so tired.  I looked down, only half a mile!?!?!  Why is the first mile always so hard on the trails???  Finally at 1.5 miles I stop feeling like I'm breathing like a 500 pound biggest loser contestant on day one.  Man it always seems this way!!  Of course we usually do start with an uphill, so....

The trails were in great condition!  As we headed down Redcliffs we praised ourselves for running smart.  "No sense rolling an ankle!"  We also agreed that Kris would be running this dumb if she were with us... no wonder she falls so much!

At the end the trail, the red cliffs were very bright! And in fact, Michele and I were actually glowing. Michele felt like it was some weird nuclear reaction.  We were seriously glowing!!  Of course it didn't register to me that I should take a picture...duh!

Headed up chickadee we passed two guy runners.  As they passed one said, "Nice colors! hey you should have called us."  My first thought was "weirdo, I'm not going to call you to run with us!"  But then it registered to me he meant since we were dressed alike.  I can never come up with witty response on the fly when I'm running.  My brain cells deplete when I'm out there.  A few minutes later I came up with a ton of come backs, but alas, they were long gone.

So what did we learn today? It seems there is always something to learn out there on the trails.  Today I learned that Michele's fast-slow is pretty close to my slow-slow.  That makes us really good running partners! :)  I also learned that local dog owners were less responsible last year than the year prior.
I really feel sorry for the person whose job it is to keep track of this!

And finally, when Kris doesn't run with us our runs are a bit more laid back, quieter, less exciting and not as violent!