A successful week 2 of the 2012 running streak and marathon training ended with a long run with friends who I've not run with before. First, I must confess that I had a slightly weak moment on Friday morning. The schedule called for 9 miles, which I knew the night before I would not be doing. But I thought I would run for an hour before work. That didn't happen. I just did not feel like running that morning, so I went back to bed (which resulted in an hour of very poor sleep), then stressed all day about getting in my "streak" run after work. I did get a 2 mile run in, but I need to remember that sometimes it's okay to skip a run, yet most of the time I should not skip it. I am tired no matter if I wake up at 5am or 8am, so unless my body is telling me to take it easy, I need to just suck it up and get out the door.
With that said, I did just that on Saturday morning and got in 4 miles before work. Although I felt sluggish I maintained a 9 minute pace and was just fine with that. Then last night I was struggling with whether I would get up an do 16 miles this morning. I knew that I HAD to get in the 16, because Christy (my BFF and long distance training partner for Virginia Beach) ran her 16 that day. But this was my only day off this entire month. So I posted my dilemma to Facebook (of course, because that's what we do nowadays, right?), and a solution was soon posted in response! A group of friends I know from cycling was getting together to run long Sunday morning. It was great--I joined them at 7am this morning and had a great run. At first the pace was a little slower than I am used to, but it allowed me to hear about their RAGNAR experience, and I was having a great time getting back into the groove of laughing and joking and story-telling while running. I forgot how much I missed that since I've been training solo for about two years now. After 7 miles we met up with some more folks who were going for a shorter distance, and a new running friend and I picked up the pace. I ran some familiar roads but also a new trail that I had not been on before, and by the end of the 16 miles, Mai and I were pushing each other pretty fast! She blamed me...but I think she was pushing it, too! So I ended with a 9:26 average, feeling really great (other than a right ankle soreness), and so happy to have enjoyed a social run that challenged me at the same time.
I ended the day today watching the US Olympic Marathon Trials, and I am thrilled to be part of a community of runners that can range from a just-off-the-couch run/walker to a blazing-fast group of amazing elite women runners. Running really can touch everyone, in one way or another.
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