A blogging smorgasbord

So, a quick recap of the past 2 weeks.

Numero uno: DMR at Terrier 2 weekends ago. This race was awesome! It was the first time I felt the genuine exhilaration of 4 people working together to drop the hammer since college. Really, I felt like we all ran our hearts out that day. The race was so exciting from the start. Allison positioned us up front with her 1200, Sara - in typical Sara fashion - dominated the 400 leg, I maintained the lead in the 800, and Emily fended off some wicked strong milers to the finish. We won the race in less than a second. It was so exciting!!! And...our teammates...how encouraging! Coach Tom was yelling his usual nonsense as we rounded the track, Jonyong, Ted, and Rod were advising and encouraging on the backstretch, Liz was timing the legs, teammates were screaming...it was AWESOME! It was only paralleled by watching Dibaba break her own world record in the 5K only a couple of hours later at a neighboring meet.

Numero dos: Tuesday night's practice - twenty or so scrawny but scrappy women zipped through the dark and icy streets of Roxbury on our warmup. One dropped back. Complained of cramps. She is new to the sport. I stopped to help. 5 minutes later, a silhouette gracefully bounded through the darkness toward us - Sloan had come back to keep us company. 5 minutes after that, two more profiles etched through the darkness - Ronnesia and Lynn had returned to make sure all was well. What amazed me was that NOBODY had to stay. We aren't bound by rules and regulations like many college teams. We're just a bunch of women who love to train and compete. The sheer fact that we all rallied together to help someone with such a simple issue made me realize why I love this team. Sure, the running is incredible. Sure, racing is exhilarating. Sure, the pursuit of winning is addicting. But, with dozens of club teams from which to chose in the area, why do I stay with GBTC? THE PEOPLE. The women are outstanding, conscientious, humane competitors with real lives, real jobs, real concerns... Small scenarios like this Tuesday night one cement in my mind how compassionate we all are toward each other.

Numero tres: Stew 15K - yesterday. Cold. Hilly. Hard. We 'warmed up' for 15 minutes to no avail. I stood on the starting line shivering my bum off. The race went AWESOME. I felt calm, relaxed, patient (I am very infrequently a patient runner)... Lynn and I raced together until about halfway (I love racing with Lynn - I think our paces work so well together) and then I decided to make a 5:59 mile move to try to put some space between the surrounding women competitors and me. It worked...and I just battled it in the rest of the way. It felt nice to run a negatively split race. But, that was the easy part. The hard part was going out for an hour long run after the race. OHMYGOD - it was FREEZZZZZING cold - I was a blubbering idiot at that point - I don't think my mouth was even sounding out my words - Megha and Lynn were having a hell of a time trying to understand me. You'd think I would just stop talking at that point...but I'm not so sure how to do that (or so I've been told).

Numero cuatro: DA BEARS! A bunch of us watched the Superbowl at Audrey and Jeremy's sweet Somerville pad later that night. Surrounded by feminist quotes, delicious snacks, great friends, and cute kitties, I had a FANTASTIC time. What an awesome way to cap off a solid weekend!!!!

'Aight...that is it for me. I'm getting geared up for another weekend of racing, racing, racing...expect a blog entry about Emily breaking 17 in the 5K, Famous breaking 18 in the 5K, Sloan debuting for the season, and me running my classic sub-par 5K performance (consistent past practice has taught me that this ALWAYS happens when i run a 5K).

*Laura