Saturday Morning Run - Holy Cow that was a lot of people

First off let me just say that I run with an amazing group of people! I'm not sure exactly how many people were out there at 6am for the second group (yeah that's right second group, some of them had been out there since 4:30am) but we were like a tribe as we headed out of Crow Creek park.

Today was the perfect day for a run in my opinion, mid 40's low wind, overcast skies, simply awesome morning for a run. We headed out going south down Devils Glen and hopped on the bike path for 45 min before heading back. As always the main group broke up into a couple smaller groups as runners of different abilities settle into their own rhythm. This is one of the reasons that I love running with the group so much, their is a wide range of runners, like John who is training for The Leadville 100 mile Ultra Marathon to
Marathon trainers and people who are just out getting in 10-12 miles for a half marathon or shorter. Today I spent the majority of the day running with Jay who is making a comeback to running after back to back injuries that have left him sidelined for the past couple months. He broke his jaw during a fall and then after recovering from that he had a back injury, just the mere fact that he was out running is a testament to his dedication and perseverance.

I have run with this group 3 or 4 times over the last month and each time I get to meet someone new and spend some quality time getting some quality miles in. You really get to know someone over the course of an hour or 2 while running, and its funny the range of topics you might cover, everything from blister prevention to your child's activities and everything in between. It's funny some of the people I've met only a couple of times and spent only a handful of hours with but I have had more in depth conversations with them than I have with some of my closest friends whom I've know for years.

After finishing up with our 90 min loop we all met back at crow creek where some other LU members along with the PV Girls cross country team were waiting to join up for the next round. I was only going to join them for another 2-3 miles since I was almost to my miles and had to get headed back home soon. After a quick photo op we headed out of the park with 20+ people, we were like a gang of runners, it must have been a funny sight for the people driving by us as we headed out on our way down Devils Glen, I can only imagine what it must have looked like...pretty awesome...or strange depending on your perspective I guess.

I finished up with Anne and Jay who turned around at the same time I did, with 13 miles in just under 2 hours at a 9 min mile pace which once again is still remarkable to me. I am running just as fast on my group long runs as I am on my shorter solo runs. Days like today when running feels easy and almost effortless I get a glimpse at what kind of potential I have to get better and it only fuels my desire to keep pushing my body further. I felt better at the end of 13 miles than I did at the beginning, I felt like I could have kept going had it not been for time constraints and done 18 miles today, how smart that would have been is a whole nother debate. But when running feels like it did this morning, its easy to understand just how addicting it can be...best drug in the world!

After I got home from my run I wrestled with the boys for awhile before doing 3 rounds of 20/20 crunches and push ups and the boys joined me afterwards, then I taught them how to do headstands, don't tell their mother not sure if shed appreciate at that or not, ha-ha!!!

Time now for the boys first soccer game, then I'm going to hit the pool at the Y and try and get a good work out in since I missed 2 swims this week, than we have a birthday party to go to this afternoon, busy, busy day, but I wouldn't want it any other way.


Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.