Fantastic Run

Over the past 8 months or so, I've been invited a number of times to mountain bike, road ride and now run with a crew that goes out at 6:30AM on Sunday mornings. I came close to mountain biking with them once in June, but then whimped out because of intimidation and fear of re-injuring my then fragile calf during the 3 hour, hilly ramble. Other than that, I've never really come close to joining this group until today.

I joined three of the regular guys for a run in and around Trapps Family Lodge. We ran up hills, down hills, through tons and tons of mud (took a wrong turn), along dear paths (to avoid the muddy trail), across old farm land -- all at a very respectable pace. At the end, we kicked it into high gear, which felt great.

There were two things, though, that I really enjoyed about the run. First, I was running with a new crew of guys. My connection to the group is through a hockey friend who lives nearby (and coincidentally who went to junior high school with Mrs. VTR), but I had never met the other two. Something about meeting them at dawn on a Sunday for a random trail run was very cool. It helped that we talked a lot on the run, and they were all good guys. The other thing that made my day was that I was able to hang with them from a fitness standpoint. They're fit, to say the least. I guess I should be able to hang since I just did the CCM, but I was still pleasantly surprised that my fitness didn't go away, that I have that level of fitness at all, and that this crazy hour and forty minute long run was not a problem for me.

I'm still getting used to the idea of being a runner, still surprised by it.

Later boys.