Outside again

Today I had plans to meet some old TNT teammates at the park for a run. And when I woke up, I looked outside and saw a couple of inches of snow had fallen overnight. Ugh, I don't enjoy running in the snow especially when the flakes are still falling.

But since I'd already promised people that I'd be there, off I went. Plus I was going to have to run eight miles today one way or another, and it's definitely a lot more fun to run with people outside instead of all alone on the treadmill.

We met up in the warming room. There were seven of us. Two were walkers so they went separately and the other five of us headed out together. I'm the slowest one so eventually the pack of five broke up a bit and two went on ahead while three of us stayed back. The two who stayed with me, Josh and Debbie, were definitely running slower than their normal pace just to accommodate me but I appreciated it (even though I do feel guilty when I hold people back like that).

When we hit the water station at the 3.25 mile mark, up from behind us came another old teammate Neil. We'd thought he wasn't coming but it turns out he was just a little late so he hauled butt to catch up with us. Neil runs at my pace normally, so we were able to run together while the others went on ahead. So everyone had someone to run with and it was nice.

It was in the upper 20s, so really the temperature was quite comfortable. I was wearing a light jacket plus a winter-weight Nike shirt and ultimately I had to unzip the jacket. That shirt is WARM! I could have skipped the jacket entirely and been fine. The shirt is kind of fleecy on the inside and definitely keeps me toasty.

All in all, quite an exhilarating run and I'm so glad I went. Running has turned out to be not only great for my fitness and my mental health, but also a great way to connect with people and make friends. I love it! :)