Notes
Hugh came up with an idea of a Black Friday run and Bob and his wife thought of a route. We met at Panera at the Columbia mall at 6 am thinking we would beat the crowds. We had no idea that it was that crazy. The parking lot was nearly full.
Here is Bob's description of the route:
Run through the mall (around the parking lot) but don't find the gift.
Go to the surrounding stores (through the parking lots of Dicks Sporting Goods, et al.) and, with no success there, head to WalMart (Ash>>Fairview).
Realize you will never be able to even get a parking spot at WalMart, give up and decide to go downtown (Fairview>>Chapel Hill>>Twin Lakes>>Trail>>Providence).
Find what you are looking for downtown but refuse to pay downtown prices, give up again and go back to the mall (Stewart>>Westwood>>Broadway>>Clinkscales>>Ash>> parking lots>>Panera).
Buy the default Mizzou Sweatshirt you should have gotten them in the first place, and finally reward yourself with coffee and something decadent at Panera.
Hugh, Bob, Chris and I showed up to run. Chris ran a about 6 miles, Hugh made a bathroom stop and Bob and I ended up running the entire course together. It was a beautiful morning and fun watching the crazy shoppers. There was even a clown outside Shoe Carnival. Running down Chapel Hill in the bike lane some lady slowed down in her car and said sidewalk. I guess she wanted to drive her car in the bike lane. Pretty scary.
This run was great for burning off my over consumption of sugar yesterday. I had a sugar hangover this morning. After the run though, I was hungry and had a breakfast sandwich at Panera. We definitely need to make this run a Black Friday tradition.