Saturday, August 2, 2008

18 Miles With The Girls

How about an overcast morning, steady, light rain, cool temps around 70 degrees, and green leafy trees and lush green grass surrounding a group of girls out for a run? It was great, the rain actually lasted for about half the run and it was perfect running conditions. Six of us started out together and the more we chatted and laughed the more I realized how inspiring they all were as women and runners!

One girl told us her hilarious experience of running with the local hasher running group and we all decided we would skip out on that one. She also sang snippets of her all-time favorite disco music throughout the miles, forcing us to smile and have fun and sing along maybe... Another woman completed some tri's this summer, including placing third woman overall in the Shoreline tri! And she is signed up for Iron Man Lake Placid for next summer. It was so much fun to run with just the girls and keep each other going. Especially for me in a new area where I'm still getting to know people. These women really were inspiring and so comfortable to hang out with for a run. They were accepting and made you feel like part of them even though I had just met several of them for the first time.

Most of the little group made it for 13.5 miles together, then two went on to make it 15 and three of us stuck together for 18. The two I was with picked up the pace for the last four and half miles! I had them in sight the whole time which really helped me not slow down and keep a steady pace. I couldn't hang with them though! In the final mile, (which ended up being my fastest mile, go figure) we sang James Brown's "I Feel Good" and ran it in on sheer adrenalin and a "Shine On" mantra with every step. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend and great start to the day! Shine On Girls, until next time!

1 comment:

Arland said...

Hey Kirsten, there is something about singing out loud while you run that puts out adrenaline. I can't sing so I have only done it when I was delirious. When we did the school run here we were at mile 26 and one of the military guys started doing cadence but instead of military words it was running stuff. It was great and we made the words up as we went and it got everyone over that last hill.