22 miles to nowhere

"Oh my...i had no idea training for a marathon would be this much fun!"

A quote from a new posse member.  Maybe she didn’t know... it's her first marathon... but there's a reason we do this the way we do it.  T & I have done it "the other way", and with a giant group of giggling people is far superior.  Are there advantages to running alone?  Sure... sure there are...

But when the weather is hot and you know you have a week of solo beach running ahead, you treasure those miles with your group.

I ran 22 miles this weekend.  Not one step was unsupported.  

Mike-n-Ike, sugar drips, running skirts and socks... are all good... 

Mid run 3L pick up... brought back good memories ...

Clearly being called out by Coach Black & Those People... was worth a free smile....

Yes, 22 miles in 2 days, and every mile was fun.  Even the hard ones.

Kc, 3L, g.

At GBA we have RULES.  The RULES we “enforce” within our GBA group are very clear. 

GBA Rule = Have more FUN than anyone else on the course.

As a team we travel as a pack, for the most part.  Our GBA crew cycles together, swims together, runs together… drinks together, shops together.  Because we’re such a large and diverse group of women (and guy) we are able to mix and match, and it’s always new and fresh.

For the first few weeks of MTT we even had a successful carpool.  As the weeks have gone on, the “pool” has dwindled, and this week, everything kind of went up in smoke.  Everyone was doing their own thing.  Which is fine, but the result was that we drove in separately. 

So T & I arrived early to run 2 before the 10, because with San Fran on the horizon, 12 miles made sense.  When we got back to the stadium after the two miles, we regrouped and set out to Run in the SNOW. (MTT Yellow SNOW)

T, Triple Threat Leslie (3L), Mustang Sally & our newest Posse member, VWB were all running together when I teased Mustang Sally about her preference to ride down to the city alone…

And Mustang Sally countered with ~like~ in a near miss on a Valley Girl accent (which is real a trick because she’s Aussie)…

“Well, this week I rode down in Volkswagen Blond’s super cute car… which is way cool.”

VWBlond smiled…

And I was ~like~ “no.way.  VWBlond?

Are you trying to tell me that you think your convertible volkswagen beetle is ~ like ~ cooler than my beige mini-van?”

The thing is VWB has the cutest laugh, it makes me laugh… so now we’re running and laughing, and while running and laughing are not mutually exclusive…  it’s hard to do one and the other if you’re trying to do both well.

Fortunately for GBA we’re always able to know when to sacrifice the run for the laugh, or vise-versa.   Sometimes this means sucking it up and running through the ‘pain’.  Sometimes this means standing in the middle of the street in Twickory with our hands on our knees, tears running down our faces, trying to catch our breath so we can hear 3L as she jogs ahead continuing with her story…

after the run snack at SpeeDee's car.
me, Triple Threat L, SpeeDee, VWBlond, Mustang Sally, T
 (oh, and I'm holding the watermelon away from my white skirt)

The sunny Sunday 12 miles were fine.  My legs were tired by the end, and all I wanted to do was pick up the pace to get it over with.  We didn't though.  We ran in our "pace zone", which... is kinda hard.  

I loved the company.  I loved the moment.  I loved when T passed 900 miles and we all gave a little cheer in a joyful chorus.

The post run powwow, the slice of watermelon, the giggling and the ~nearly~ inappropriate jokes?  They made all the tiredness vanish.  Because, well, I don't really know the science of it... and I don't care to...  

Yes, 22 miles in 2 days, and every mile was fun.  Even the hard ones.

~savor the run~