girls on the run | runningandthecity

By last Thursday I was feeling it, I was getting sad… Separation Anxiety!!! The end of the road was around the corner. It was like the last .2 And it wasn’t even that long of a road, but it had been a few months of just total fun!!

After a couple of days of practice I was in love with all these girls. They were all completely amazing. And we had the best time running around, playing and working out.

The Random Fun Stuff…

And how often do we (adults?) get any free time from this (adults’?) world? How often can we just not worry about stuff and be a 10 year old all over again? Who gets that chance? Of course, I still had to help them, coach them, stop them, and even protect them, but still… I would get to wear the craziest and girliest things and I was not out of place for once.

I learned a lot too. Patience. But everything went both ways. They learn so fast and they were always ready to jump into the relays, or the drills, or whatever game we proposed. And ready to sit, or snack, or be quiet (when they were exhausted mostly!).

Drills, stretching, relay racing, stairs…

By Friday, it was palpable. We were hugging the whole time. And we had cake. Well, they had some cake and I finished all their plates. Kids don’t eat much and that is insanely amazing FOR ME! Hehehehe.

And the running… the running was FANTASTIC!!!!

Sunday morning rolled around and we were all meeting at Asphalt Green at 7 am for the 5K. I am going to admit I had trouble sleeping. I was nervous!! I didn’t sleep well only 4 times in the last two years (and they were the nights before two ultras and 2 marathons!!!!). What? I was nervous??

All ready to do this! (ah, I wished I had worn tights!)

By the start… it’s time!

They take off and I see them go. They all have an assigned running buddy, which in some cases was one of their parents. They really can’t be running alone all over town!! But I wanted to make sure the parents/buddies were able to stay with them (I know first hand how fast some of them are!), so I took off after them to catch up to the front and see if any of them needed needed to drop off or check that they were all ok.

So… I started like 300 meters back and had to really work it to get up to my first girl. She was leading the race!!! And, get ready, she was doing 7:20 pace!!!!!

I caught up to her, and she looked osom. Run around her almost to half the distance as I wanted to check on everyone else by the midpoint. Just a few seconds later, two more of my girls come by: they are the chase!

These two would end up in the top 5 too! Craziness!!! Anyway, I see my first girl come back and she’s fighting the lead with another girl. I was so impressed!

I pretty much run with everybody else right after the turnaround point, as I wanted to make sure they were fine, and some of them needed a bit of encouragement.