If it weren’t eight degrees with a wind-chill and the streets and trails were not covered with snow and ice, I could walk, actually run out my front door and go run ten miles. Granted, I am not in great shape and I might be a little sore the next day and my running injury I am nursing might flare up, but you get the picture, I could do it.
Your response to that might be, “WOW!” or it may be, “Ya, so what?” Honestly, after running pretty much since I graduated from high school, including long distances such as marathons, running ten miles is really not that big of a deal. It is not easy such that I did it in my third trimester and in fact I think I have only done it once since having a baby, but it is completely doable.
I don’t bring this up to claim to be some kind of running superstar, because that is absolutely, positively VERY FAR from the truth. I bring this up as a point of comparison to my bad ass running friends.
I know you should not compare yourself to others because, lets face it, there is always someone prettier, skinnier, more athletic, smarter, more bubbly, etc. In fact, I try very hard not to compare myself to others since it inevitably leads me to being dissatisfied with myself even if it was just for being petty for making the comparison. But if I were the type of person who compared myself to others, I would drop down on my knees and praise my buddies from the running group.
We tried long ago to come up with a better name than the running group, but apparently we are not very creative so nothing ever stuck and we are still the running group. And I should mention that since having Belén I have really only run with two individuals from the group a handful of times because while I got big and slow and then less big but still slow, they all turned into a pack of speedy gonzales’. Despite not running with them, we still have a social gathering at least once enough so I am in touch.
This weekend was a big race weekend for five of the individuals in the group. Sherri and Joelle both ran a very difficult 50-mile race and Lindsay and Michelle ran the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon while Allison ran the half. Yesterday when I logged into facebook, I saw the following report from Joelle.
Sherri and I ran the North Face Challenge 50 mile race yesterday by San Francisco. Sherri finished her 1st 50 miler with the same smile and bounce that she always has! I came in 2nd place ($4000 prize!) with I was thrilled about, a few of the faster women expected to compete didn’t race do to various injuries. The weather was absolutely perfect for us and we had the best views of the ocean and Golden Gate bridge. The course was slated as a 5 out of 5 star for difficulty and that was true. Tons of climbing (not really a flat spot on the course) and so many stairs on the trails, I should have trained the in BSU stadium! We did run on some of the most amazing trails I have seen, ducking under moss covered redwoods and on ridges overlooking the Pacific. It was a great day!
And here was the report from Sherri after her first 50-miler.
Just completed my first 50 miler and feel every sore muscle in my body this morning! It was an incredible day and I’m talking from sun up to sun down! My friend, Joelle, rocked the race and came in 2nd place. I….well, I finished and couldn’t be happier!!
Joelle finished an incredibly hilly, championship race in under eight hours!!! That is a pace of 9:50 for 50 miles!! Dios Mio! Sherri finished in 11.5 hours for her first ever 50-miler.
Then on Sunday, I followed the Rock n’ Roll marathon by receiving text messages when Michelle crossed various points in the course. It was really exciting to follow her progress. Both her and Lindsay had really good times and Allison rocked the half marathon. Lindsay ran a 3:28 (under an eight minute mile pace for 26.2 miles!) and finished 51st out of 2535 female runners! Michelle ran a 3:48, 361st of the women. Allison ran the half marathon and finished in 1:28 (6:43 pace for 13.1 miles!), second in her age division and 24th out of 11,322 females!!
I am so proud of these guys! Aren’t they amazing?!
So now we recognize that running prowess is all relative. I am happy with my slower paces and shorter distances and amazingly proud of my bad ass running friends. They give me something to aspire to and provide me with friends on one side of the workout, eat well, kick butt at running spectrum. But, I do find that I have to also have friends on the other side of the spectrum to feel like I am not a total slacker.
Happy Winter Trails!
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