Today is my birthday. Never an ideal time for parties due to its proximity to a little known holiday called Thanksgiving. Maybe you've heard of it? The older I get, the less I care about gifts and parties and the more I care about doing some fun stuff with people I love. This year I got that plus a reminder of how far I've come this year.
Turns out one of my best friends was born a couple of days before me. I have no problems at all sharing a birthweekend/ birthweek/ birthmonth with such a great gal. And that's saying something. This year we somehow roped a crew of people to do a trail race on the 24th of November. The day after her birthday and my birthday eve. I loved the idea of race that we could pretend was only created to celebrate US! And there was beer at the end. So that's always good.
It wasn't until a few days before the race that I really realized where we were going... The race was in the same park where my same dear birthweek sharing friend and I ran our first full marathon on trails. A race that I didn't think I was able to do, ready to do, or talented enough to do. But sometimes all it takes are some slightly crazy and overly positive thinking friends to convince you that you are able to do things that you didn't realize were possible. Then you find yourself at the the starting line with amazing friends, questioning your sanity, but loving that you took the chance. It was a convenient time for me to remember these fears and thoughts when I'm a week away from my next trail marathon that kinda scares the living crap out of me...
It was really powerful to be back on the same trails (with out the brain frying heat of an August marathon) with the same friend that carried me through our last adventure here. What made it better was sharing it with other friends that had never been there and having our own personal cheerleader/ photographer who had also conquered the searing heat marathon with us this summer (using the term "with" loosely, she's way faster than us) come along.
We ran and drank and ate and laughed. And then this morning I had another great run on my favorite trail with more people I love. I also had a red velvet cupcake. And as I sat there surrounded by people I love, enjoying my caffine, sugar rush, runner's high combo, I realized how happy I am to be where I am.
Super awesome things that happened before, during, and after the race:
-Long conversations in a van with friends about strangers with panty lines
-Busting my friend's chops because she brought skiing gloves to run in (seriously they looked like lobster claws, they were giagantic)
-Runners slow to a crawl going down a very steep incline. Friend turns to me and asks, "why does it smell like raw sewage here?" I answer, "because someone just let one rip..." Farts are always funny.
-Eating cookies and hot chocolate from the back of a van after a lovely trail race.
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