It's a New Year
I am just feeling blessed. I'm easing back in to running and it is feeling good. I'm still doing a few walk breaks, but for the most part am chugging along steadily since my last post, where I talked about running the Dam 5K Dash with the beginning running class.
When I'm running with a group, I say to myself, "running with a group is the best way ever!" But then a couple of days later I wake up before dawn and head out to the chilly streets. Before long I'm saying to myself, "running this way, alone and free while the rest of the world is asleep and the day just being born, is the best way ever!"
I'm so thankful I don't have to choose only one way or the other. This past Saturday I ran with the group my running club is sponsoring for runners training for the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon. I am a pace group leader for the slightly velocity-challenged folks, among whom I definitely number myself. We did about six miles at Bay Farm Island on a run that started in close-to-freezing weather and finished in crisp winter sunlight. We were all filled with purpose and determined to face the six-mile challenge and succeed. Which we did!
Then Monday, the official New Year's Day holiday, I awoke around 5:30 am and suited up in double pants, double shirts, and gloves. (It amazes me how often just putting on my running duds lifts me out of any reluctance I might have about heading out the door.) I ran the 1.6 miles from the house to the Hopkins track, the scene of so many challenging runs in my younger days that I used to call it the Crucible, and tested my healing glutes with a few speedy 100s. I was circumspect--ginger, even--doing these intervals, and they went well.
By the time I was on the way home, I was pretty happy. And even though it was January 2, I found especially celebratory the holiday lights that were still up around the 'hood.
I even forgot my resolution to stop trying to take pictures in the dark. I figure my life is my party, and I'll photograph if I want to. (It goes without saying that also I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to....but not today.)
When I'm running with a group, I say to myself, "running with a group is the best way ever!" But then a couple of days later I wake up before dawn and head out to the chilly streets. Before long I'm saying to myself, "running this way, alone and free while the rest of the world is asleep and the day just being born, is the best way ever!"
I'm so thankful I don't have to choose only one way or the other. This past Saturday I ran with the group my running club is sponsoring for runners training for the Oakland Running Festival Half Marathon. I am a pace group leader for the slightly velocity-challenged folks, among whom I definitely number myself. We did about six miles at Bay Farm Island on a run that started in close-to-freezing weather and finished in crisp winter sunlight. We were all filled with purpose and determined to face the six-mile challenge and succeed. Which we did!
Then Monday, the official New Year's Day holiday, I awoke around 5:30 am and suited up in double pants, double shirts, and gloves. (It amazes me how often just putting on my running duds lifts me out of any reluctance I might have about heading out the door.) I ran the 1.6 miles from the house to the Hopkins track, the scene of so many challenging runs in my younger days that I used to call it the Crucible, and tested my healing glutes with a few speedy 100s. I was circumspect--ginger, even--doing these intervals, and they went well.
By the time I was on the way home, I was pretty happy. And even though it was January 2, I found especially celebratory the holiday lights that were still up around the 'hood.
I even forgot my resolution to stop trying to take pictures in the dark. I figure my life is my party, and I'll photograph if I want to. (It goes without saying that also I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to....but not today.)
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