Penguin Dash

Never fails
As the weekend nears
Text blasts
Anybody running Saturday?


Looks like Jen and Steph
Have one planned


Ask if I can join them

Plan is to meet up
Saturday at 6am

Friday night finds me
Frantically foam rolling


Holy hallelujah that is some pain
But from what I hear
Pain is a sign that work is being done


Roll it again,
and again,
Pain starts to wane

This is encouraging.


Saturday's alarm
Finds me hitting snooze

Once
Twice
Ackkkkkk


I'm up
Granola bar
Banana
(hate them, but I always feel better on a run with one in me)
Emergen-C water


I don't plan to bring water or fuel
Shouldn't be too long of a run today

Water in the car

Meet up
Drive to Steph's


Harper Valley
I check the clock
It's now 6:30
We have to be back to our parking spot by 8
For a newly formed walk/run group monthly meet-up
We will have to book it to make it


We're off!
It is so crazy dark


And...... they're gone


Into the black

Gone

Flat gone


No worries
Just running up that hill
Across that highway
Down to .....
hmmm where do I cross?

And so it goes

The penguin
That's me, this incredibly slooooow runner
Chasing those silly crazy girls that have vanished

Maybe I was running all alone
And I imagined the whole "group run" thing-

Am I really THAT slow?
I do the math in my head
If I'm 2 minutes/mile slower
Wow....
They're at least a half mile ahead of me by now


Potty break
At 7/11
Almost said Pity party

Felt like I wanted to

Then I remembered
Last week,
When I couldn't run
Back hurt so bad


I prayed,
"Just let me be able to run"

Am I that fickle
That I say
"No thanks- "
To His -"yes, if only you go slow"?

Challenging, this-
Running without anything,
But your discontent and doubt

Decided to be thankful
Thankful for this solitary
"Group" run

Passed the time
Singing a little ditty
My little moll's likes to sing

"Wibble wobble,
wibble wobble,
Penguins dash-
Down to the water,
Splish, splish, splash"

The girls called me on my cell

Several times


"Yes, I'm OK"
It was nice to be worried about

Down Apache
Down Navajo

hmmmm
Is UP the other side of Navajo
A short cut?


Up
up
up
up
up
up
up
up
up


That crazy insane sprinting hill
Pride myself that I didn't walk it
Till the tippy top anyways


The neighborhood is SO familiar


I've run it with Tennille
Run it with Clare


But now that I'm the one
Telling me where to go
I falter
Choose a wrong turn
Then another
I feel like
Dorothy - sand slipping through the hour glass
No time left
Must get back

Another call from the girls
They are headed my way


The group walk/run about to start


Find my way out of the neighborhood
Another half mile
I meet up with the group
at another 7/11 for a potty break
haha
8.89 miles run


I stop in for a drink

AMAZING!


Another 3ish miles
The walk is relaxing
No longer hurried


Another Saturday run down


Legs made it.

*************
This run really messed with my mind
I was really discouraged the rest of the day
Doubted myself quite a bit

I think it was mostly me being upset with myself

Definately not upset with the girls
(I always tell them to keep running
If they were to slow down,
I would have slowed down,
If they were to come back for me
I would have been demoralized-)

I'm still looking for that balance of being content
And pushing harder
But most importantly
Realizing that MY best is just that
Mine

Oh this crazy running thing
I have come so far-
But it's great to realize
I have so far left to go
Hope I'll never feel like i've arrived
Forever isn't long enough to try
***************************