Girls Night Out...literally

Saturday was a great reminder of why I love the fall, especially the mountains during the fall. I ventured to Monte Sano Mountain with three precious friends, Laura,Sarah and Kate.The weather turned in our favor after we arrived. Sunny skies, leaves in every color..in every direction, it was amazing. We were typical girls on our camping adventure, managing to only spend 2-3 hours in the cold, and a warm night tucked in our sleeping bags in ONE tent. I ran the Xterra Trail Race the following morning, a brutal 9.3 miles. Never run that far on a hiking trail, unless you are being chased! It was hard on the ankles and ever worse on my pride. I love to run on trails, don't get me wrong, but this was "boot camp" style trail running. I'm thankful for the beautiful scenery and sense of humor the Lord placed in my heart. Yes, after two women speaking Spanish, another large lady carrying WATER (no one told me you could do this!), and another chatting it up with another guy as they whizzed passed me... I had to warmly smile ..and remember.. "who said I was running to win? HA! you guys are missing the joy of just running to run... " Yeah right, who am I kidding..I hated placing 4th. The night before the race my friend Aaron suggested a great Italian place. The best pre-race meal ever was delivered by a chief from New York who has been featured on the Food Network and won several awards! Aaron also informed us that we get points for each race, and the runner with the most points will be awarded an expense paid entry to Xterra Nationals...what?! I'm considering the last race in the spring at Oak Mountain, it'll be a 5k. A free trip to somewhere beautiful.... it's worth a try!The best part of the weekend : eating at the Dallas Deli as soon as we arrived, eating at Tortora's Saturday night, spotting a Johnny Cash look alike at camp...and he followed us(yikes!), campfire, arriving to the camp bathroom/showers before 60 girl scouts,reading under beautiful trees, remembering the Creator and all His majesty,spending time with great friends.