Thursday Morning Run- Moonlight Beach

Okay, I admit it, I am lucky! Ran this morning with Team in Training teammates at Moonlight Beach again, with Dharma and her two friends that are also training for the marathon. All really nice people. Ran two miles on Neptune, which is parallel to the beach and oohed and ahhhed over the homes. Walked back 2 miles with them because one of them were hurting and even though I could have kept running, quite frankly I really enjoy the companionship. It's hard not really knowing people since moving here four months ago, so I cherish every minute I can chat with new friends. I also found out that one of them was the guitarist for Bryan Adams! What's funnier is that the week before when I found out he was a musician, I told him about my musician friends and that if he wanted to make a living in NYC as a musician, that bassists get a lot of work. Too funny.

One great thing about training for a marathon is that it gives you the opportunity, for a while, to see what it's really like to be an ATHLETE. I was thinking about it this morning as I was using my foam roller to roll out my aching shins- that right now, Olympians in Vancouver were doing the exact same thing. We're both drinking yellow sports drinks and injesting rubbery goo and stretching our bodies to the limit. How cool is that?

Moonlight Beach

Met up with Team in Training's north branch teammates to do a run this morning at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. WOW! Talk about such a beautiful place to meet, I laughed at how ridiculously stunning it was when I got there!

The 3 mile run was led by one of the Team in Training mentors, Dharma, and we ran on the side streets that were by the beach. A beautiful place! Had a nice time talking with the four other people that were who had been training together for some time and had done the Carlsbad half marathon together. We did 6 minute run, 2 minute walk, which is more my speed because one minute walks are just not enough!

I learned about strength from the Team in Training mentor who oversaw the run. She had said that her 8 year old daughter, Chloe, had died five months earlier because she had taken a medication and had medical complications because of it. It came completely sudden, and she wasn't even sick before taking it. Her friend had asked her if she had done anything that brought her purpose and joy, to give her a reason to go on, and she had said she really enjoyed doing the half marathon with Team in Training the summer before. So her friend told her to replicate it, to train for another race. So she decided to train and contacted her friends, family, and parents of her daughter's friends, and they all trained together and did the Carlsbad 1/2 marathon in memory of her daughter, and called themselves Chloe's Crew. 60 people in all! The story is here. The five month anniversary of her daughter's death was the day after the 1/2 marathon. She's now training for the Rock n' Roll full marathon with Team in Training, as well as be a mentor. She told me running has given her a reason to wake up in the morning.

Dharma, you are an inspiration!