That's What Friends Are For

My training continues to be spotty. Boo. What I am finding is that when I can make the time to run, it may be slower than I would like or what I'm accustomed to, but it's pretty darn good.

My company's annual user-conference brought me back to San Diego two weeks ago and I had two decent runs in Mission Valley and two FANTASTIC runs along the Embarcadero with a colleague and a client. The weather was perfect and it was just really good to get out on the road.

Last week was crazy with work and I could never find a good time to run. I decided that something had to give and for the weekend I made the time.

Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 4:00 AM, I got ready to go for my first chance to meet Morgan. We have been trying to meet for quite a while and at 5:30 AM Saturday morning we made it happen. We ran on the Cady Way trail, which is pretty darn dark at 5:30 in the morning. We talked and talked and talked and talked and ran and ran and ran and ran. Before I knew it, we were at our turn-around point and we headed back. Eight miles in the bag! It was great to finally meet her and run together. Hopefully, it won't be the last time! I love my running friends!

After Our run, I headed home, took a shower and we were on the road to Port Saint Lucie to Mr. H's uncle's birthday party. We spent a few hours there and then we headed home. I wanted to make it an early night, because my alarm was set for 4:00 AM for Sunday too.

Sunday morning it was a similar routine. I was up, and soon out the door. This time I was headed to Marathon Chris' house. From there we went to the University of Central Florida for the Race for a Cure. We got there early and quickly found a parking place, and walked over to packet pick up. There was no line and we things went quickly. Chris and I stopped back at my car and then we were off for a pre-race run. We made a loop around campus and 2.75 miles later we were back near packet pick up. I was so glad we got there early. It was a madhouse. There were at least 7,000 people registered for the race.

I decided that because the race would be a part of my long run and because there were so many people, I didn't want to push the pace and race, I just wanted to run. Chris and I ran and chatted and kept it comfortable. It was nice.

After we crossed the finish line, we got some water and bagels. We sat down and enjoyed the fantastic weather. And soon we were back on the road. Chris took me on a tour of the Research Park which was really fascinating. I had no idea it was there or the kind of work that was done right in our own backyard.

I had 16 on my schedule. I had a feeling as we got close to eight miles that 16 miles were not in the cards. We decided that 12 miles might be good. And 12 it was.

What a fantastic weekend for running with my friends. I feel like Morgan and Chris helped me over the hump and my running is going to get better and I am going to get stronger. The future is looking bright!