The First Time!

This morning was our first group run. And can I say we are freaking awesome?!?! Kristi picked a beautiful location: The Porter Rockwell Trail in Draper.

We met at 10:15... okay, maybe it was more like 10:30 for me... and started out with a 5 minute walk, and then it was off for a 50 minute run. The valley is blanketed with a beautiful layer of fresh snow and the sun was shining, making the air crisp and the snow glitter. It was breathtaking!

As if running isn't hazardous enough, there were ice patches coating parts of the trail. Kristi and I tried talking the first few minutes, but before long we joined Kera and retreated to our tunes. Poor Kristi who forgot her ipod! I don't know how she made it through the whole hour in near silence!

The first few minutes are always the hardest for me, but after my body gets over the intial anger over my making it move in sub-zero terrain, it's like I slip into a state of meditation. It's just me and my thoughts.

Today my train of thoughts went kind of like this: I couldn't get over how beautiful a day it was! I felt so lucky to be there with two of my dearest friends working toward a lifelong goal. The snow looked like icing on the side of South Mountain and a hot air balloon was hovering nearby. I noticed about halfway through the run that I could no longer feel my cheeks, as in both sets, because they were frozen. I couldn't feel any jiggle, so I figured they had just floated off during my run. Off to a better place-- up up and away with the hot air balloon floating overhead. Or maybe they were snatched up by the red-tailed hawk that was watching us intently as we jogged by. Have you ever seen one of these birds? Seriously as big as I am. But I digress...

As we neared the end of our run, Kristi suggested we sprint the last 3rd of the mile. How this sounded like a good idea to her after running almost an hour, I do not understand, but I took the challenge, but Kera did not. In fact, she decided that was a good time for her to start walking. We were not about to let her get away with that and created her own finish line complete with spirit fingers and two cheerleaders screaming "Keep running! You can do it-- you're almost there!" to which she replied "Is this the Special Olympics?" I love you Kera.

When Kristi, our ever trusty pacesetter checked Mr. Garmen (the super-powered watch that tells pace, distance, time, calories, and the future), we had completed 5.2 Miles in 56.31 Minutes. Can you say awesome? We are off to a great start! Way to go girls!

And the song that kept me going today? "Just For Now" by Imogen Heap. Maybe it's the time of year, but I just loved the mood it set as we dashed through the snow the Saturday before Christmas.