I'm running the Carmel Half Marathon in April, which is 14 weeks away. My typical 12 week training program hasn't begun yet but I'm doing something a little differently this winter season; I haven't stopped running since my marathon in November. Gasp! Imagine that, I'm running for fun, not just for training! I figure having a solid, strong base level of physical fitness can only help me for my next training program. Novel idea, I know.
Many of the Perfect Strangers are running Spring marathons so this means they are knee deep into their training. Which translates into Saturday morning runs are back on the regular. Giddy up.
Jaime ran a few (very early) miles before meeting me at the Monon. Her first words when she ran up to me were, "I hope you don't want to run faster than 10 minute miles because I can't go one second faster. I have so many layers on that I'm thankful not to be carrying any extra baby weight!" And there she had me laughing at the crack of dawn. And I could totally relate. I was wearing two layers of pants, 4 layers of tops, a very warm winter hat, ultra warm mittens and a neck gaiter. We joked that we felt like Ralphie's little brother, not being able to put our limbs all the way down as we were bundled so heavily. Turns out all those extra layers paid off because not one of us complained of being cold.
Headlamps on a brisk 17 degree January morning
Jaim and I ran a few miles to meet Karie, who thought we were nuts before this morning and then after seeing the 3 inches of snow on the ground I'm sure she thought we were insane in the membrizzle. Jaime tried to drink some of her fuel only to realize it was slushy. And off we went to meet the next group.
We found the footing on the trail to be very fresh powder, more slippery in some parts than others. Jaime had a near wipe out but recovered like the graceful dancer that she is. At one point, just as it was becoming light out, we started talking about our Ragnar team and how we changed our name from last year to Perfect Strangers this year. We had just passed a guy and he must have overheard us talking because he chimed in, "Are you girls the Perfect Strangers running group?" Why yes. Yes we are. I must have been beaming because my cheeks hurt (or maybe that was from the frigid temps). Was so proud. And mostly thrilled. Turns out the guy was one of Meggie's very first running partners (they dubbed themselves the "Negative Splits"). Small world.
We soon noticed a large group of women running towards us and as we got closer (and nearly passed them) we realized it was the gals we were to pick up closer to the BRipp. Funny, we were all so bundled up that we were nearly unrecognizable! We took pictures (this is customary in our group) and turned back around, as it was Jaime's halfway point. A few miles back and we dropped Karie back off at her stop then quickly ran into our last few gals closer to Carmel. We all had different mileage that we needed to run and morning commitments to meet, so this is why there were so many varying starting and stopping points throughout the morning.
Another mile or so and we were at my stopping point. I hugged the girls goodbye and had headed indoors to warm up (and greet my fellow Carmel Runners Club peeps).
Christi, Bri and I warming up in our rockin' winter gear. I was talking to a fellow CRC member and he asked about my mileage...I explained to him that I just finished my run with my normal Saturday morning girls. He said, "Oh yeah, are you guys called the Strangers or something?" Yep! That's us! We're kind of a big deal. Ha! So proud to be associated with such strong, beautiful, and compassionate women. I hugged the last of the girls goodbye and drove home with a huge smile on my face. It's amazing that just a year or two ago 8 miles in 3 inches of snow sounded dreadful, yet today it was the highlight of my weekend. 
And on a completely different note, I have to add a few pics of the girls from the weekend. Recently Laney has been getting out of her bed on her own (Izzy has never once done this so it's still pretty new to us). We'll wake up hearing scratching on our door, or see her standing outside our door. I went upstairs yesterday afternoon to grab something (during nap time) and this is what I saw at the top of my stairs. She's never crying. Never playing. Just hanging out. Freaky!
And this is how Izzy sleeps every night. She sets up every one of her 500 lovies in her bed then falls asleep herself. We routinely "clean up" her bed of all her buddies but somehow they all end up back up in her bed. It's like the E.T. movie...can you find Izzy among all the stuffed animals? Love her. So much.
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