saturday mornings for the birds...

I have been fortunate enough to have found a running group! We are all training for the Chicago marathon. Some of us are young, some are older, some, like myself, are marathon virgins and there are others that have multiple marathons on their resume! Our pacer, Carolyn, is currently training to run 3 marathons in 3 days! Talk about ambitious!
Overall this group is absolutely fantastic! We meet twice a week and I tell ya I so look forward to those days! It is such a relief to have someone to ask questions, how to tweak this or that… which stretches are best for this part or what can I do to strengthen that.
Props to Naperville running company and Nike for getting this club together!
Additionally I have been working out some kinks regarding nutrition on the run. There are lots of products out there that are specifically designed for athletes like GU, sports beans and Gatorade. Unfortunately most of these products, well all of the ones I’ve tried, make my GI track go nuts, this is not a good thing while running long distances. So I have been experimenting with raisins and Gatorade and it seems to be working out pretty well so far. I’m just not sure when to start with the raisins and how much I need to keep my energy up. This is why it’s called training I suppose.
Last Saturday we ran 8 miles a nice easy pace and distance for me. I have found that it takes about 3 miles for me to warm up and get into a rhythm. Those first 3 miles my body and mind are screaming at me to stop STOP!!!! After that I suppose I’m just too stubborn and I don’t know if they stop screaming or I stop listening, either way mile 4 is so much easier then the first 3. I was so proud of myself for getting out there on Saturday morning! What I really wanted to do was roll over in bed and ignore my alarm but I gritted my teeth and woke up anyways, I went out there and I do not regret it! I always tell myself that I never regret going out for a run but I always regret missing one.
So off I went the morning was wonderful! As soon as I stepped outside I could tell the day was ripe for a perfect run. The storms from the night before had passed, the rain had cooled off the earth and the humidity was not too bad. I got lost trying to get to our Saturday morning meet up location (I had only been there once before) and then there was a traffic light that was not working properly so I was in a town that I was not familiar with and had to find a way around. But I did and I made it just in time to join my running group! It was worth the effort too. Running relaxes me, its rhythmic exertion provides a safe zone to work out my frustrations and the constant progress gives me something to be proud of. No doubt running has changed my life; it has changed me for the better. It is not often our lives are changed so dramatically, this can only be viewed as a blessing.