I hadn’t seen Jill since LAST YEAR (it was about a week ago, but LAST YEAR is crazy fun to say!), so I invited her to join me on my long run and have brunch after this morning. It was a beautiful winter day — -5 degrees and sunny — so we took to the Don Valley Trail for an easy 8k loop. Destination: the Fresh Co. and Dundas and Parliament for brunch ingredients!

A perfect day for a run! So sunny! Not so warm, but can't complain. It IS January after all.

I live steps from the Don Valley Trail, and it’s the perfect place to run on days like today. In the summer, it can be overun with cyclists, but in January? Only the crazy types hit the trail.

I include Jill in these crazy types.

My back has been super sore lately. That, coupled with my weird foot problem, my dog bite and the fact Jill isn’t much of a runner (which is going to change this year! She signed up for the Toronto Yonge Street 10k today — her first race ever!) means we took it easy and walked up hills and stairs. Everything felt good though, and it was a relief to know that I didn’t overdo it too much during my first week of marathon training.

In the end, we ended up doing just over 8k in 53:10. Not bad for the first “long run” of the year.

Of course, the best part was brunch.

Fresh salad and tofu scramble. Delicious.

The route: