Team We Run for Food

It's 10:34 am Saturday morning, February 16th and I have already eaten two breakfasts, ran 4 miles, made it to the grocery store and showered! And on top of that, because of the early morning wake up call, I spent my Friday evening cleaning my house and doing laundry. Granted, I usually hang out with friends on Fridays even when I have to run the next day, but really, exercising really has a way of getting your life together!
Week 2 of training was interesting. And by interesting I mean hell. I am not talking about the actual physical running part, but the rather the weather. For many of us on the East Coast, we got hit with rain, cold and ice! On Tuesday the cobblestone sidewalks in my neighborhood were just one big sheet of black ice! I moved my car, anticipating to then go to the gym, and had to walk inthe middle of the street so that I didn't fall and bust my butt. Ah yes, the gym. I have come to hate the gym. It cages me in. Maybe it's not the gym that I hate. Maybe it's this little machine known as the Treadmill. I have come to the conclusion that if a runner goes to hell, they are banished to an eternity running on a treadmill. So I was to run 3 miles on Tuesday evening, which, for me, 3 miles is a mere sneeze. Before Team In Training, I kind of didn't even say I went on a run if I only did 3 miles. But on the treadmill, I felt like those 3 miles were 26.2. I probably looked like someone who never runs. I was constantly checking the clock, speeding up the machine until I was doing a 7 minute mile just to get it over with! As soon as the display read 3, I stopped that thing and ran out of there! I TRIED to find a happy place. I even closed my eyes at one point to imagine I was running somewhere else, but when I almost tripped over my feet and busted my butt (hm is it possible to use that phrase 2 times in one paragraph?), anyways, I then decided I better keep my eyes open.
So after Tuesday, I guess that was really the only day of running hell. I tend to exaggerate sometimes. The rest of the week, the weather was completely gorgeous to go out and run. Days like that I sit at my desk and daydream about my workout. Yes. I have lost my mind.
As I said, here I sit it is now 1o to 11 am on Saturday morning and I have done more with my day than most will do all day. Today we ran 4 miles of the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, MD. Here is the link if you are interested/have stalker tendences:http://www.cctrail.org/CCT_General_Info.htm. For many of you who are unfamiliary with my territory down here, the Capital Crescent stretches from Bethesda, MD to Georgetown. Okay, that totally didn't clear it up for you. Anyways, it is a pretty nice trail, and I am trying to appreciate the low mileage while it lasts! I forgot how much running with a group makes it so much more enjoyable! At one point, I asked how far we had gone and someone said 3.5 miles and I couldn't believe it! The conversations just make it fly by! Running with the team is fantastic! When you pass team members along the way, everyone cheers each other on, so much motivation! It's also a fun way to meet people. We had people catch up to us and run with us a bit, by us I mean Kerry me and our teammate Moses, and you just introduce one another and find out about each other little by little. Our little running pack ended up pacing at 8:35 mile, which I was happy about. There is no way in hell though, that I will be able to maintain that for 26.2 LOL!
So in short, I love it (still). Moses kept saying how excited he was to see us run our first marathon, because there was nothing like it. He said when he crossed th finish line of his first one, he just broke into tears! I will be a puddle, guarenteed! 'Team Hector' (still working on that name) is just great! We all have great personalities and spirits, I think this season will be amazing! We are going for a buddy run on Tuesday evening down at the mall--not Tysons, the National Mall.

For now I'm just going to relax, ice my knee a bit and enjoy the rest of the day doing nothing--cause I did it all last night and this morning!