My first exposures to running were watching my dad come home in the freezing Colorado mornings. Even then as a small child I thought- this is crazy! It’s 20 degrees outside and you are running. In shorts. As a teen I went on a few runs with my brothers and my Dad. I wasn’t any good at it. I dabbled with running here and there as I was in college, but mostly on a treadmill in a climate controlled gym. I would shake my head at the crazies out in mornings and evenings pounding the pavement and pouring out sweat. It didn’t look like any fun at all.
A year ago or so my sister and I decided it might be fun to try and run a 5k. It is, after all, only three miles. And we are, after all, our father’s daughters. We could do this. We didn’t train super well but still placed decently. I remember that morning clearly. We got up really early in the morning and raced around Green Lake with 2,000 other people. It was delightful. After that, I began running regularly with breaks for bad weather and the holidays. My running was spotty over the transition to my new job earlier this year, but I started having my heart set on a half marathon. I am in the middle of my training right now. And yesterday morning I got up way too early for the weekend and went out in the cold and fog and ran six miles with my sister. There were many people out running the Sammamish River Trail. My mental thoughts reeled out on auto play- what are these crazy people doing out running in the early morning? Don’t they want to sleep? And then I looked down and realized that I had become one of them. Now I am one of the crazies. There is nothing like the wind in your lungs and the cadence of your feet on the pavement. Going, going, feeling like you could just run around the world.
Last weekend Katherine and I raced around Green Lake again. This time we ran the 10k. Here is a picture of us roaring and ready to go!
And here is a picture of us after the race with our Aflac Iron Girl tattoos just before we took showers.
