The past two weekends have been great, and I am anticipating that this coming weekend will be equally as awesome. It started May 7th.....The Frederick Half-Marathon. It was so nice to spend time with Angie, whom I hadn't seen since high school 31 years ago! We trained on-line together and met once in Gettysburg for an 11 miler. She's such a wonderful person and we have SO much in common! Same values, political ideations, even down to the same clothes hamper, for Pete's sake. She got me involved in this "race of my life". Never had I been in a race with more than 800 runners. In Frederick, there were nearly 7,000 of us! Looking ahead was like watching an undulating sea of color filling the road....and so many townspeople lining the streets and cheering! My favorite was the darling beagle who seemed to be barking out a perfect "GOOOoooooo!!" The weather was perfect as perfect could be, and the legs felt great until mile 10. The rest was a bit of a struggle, but not unbearable, and I was pleased with my time of 2:15. Five minutes slower than I wanted, but I blamed that on the crowd. : )
Angie and I just had the best time! We hung out the rest of the day and rehydrated... I did get pretty violently ill afterward, but that part is easily forgotten. Hated to say goodbye to Ang and go home...we had become like sisters and I missed her immediately.
The second great weekend in a row consisted of a 5K run in Cresson with my peeps from work. It poured all the way up until the starting gun fired, then just barely drizzled throughout the race. A refreshing mist. All of us had great times...we all finished 2nd in our age groups, except Dr. Burk was 5th in his. Not bad considering he only ran 3 or 4 times in the past year! Some people are just athletically gifted. Grrr....I run almost every day and I only beat him by less than a minute. Did I mention that it began to pour again after we finished? It was like God parted the rain clouds in that little spot over Cresson just for us. It sure was a fun time, and a personal best time for me.
Now.....this coming weekend!!!! A 45 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.....15 miles per day, carrying packs and climbing mountains, and camping out at night with the bears and junk. Hopefully my two good friends, Suzann and Jen will be the tastier morsels for the bears.....just kidding ladies. I SO look forward to my A.T. hikes....nothing I have found brings me closer to God than being out in His nature. The trail is a blessing that I count every day, along with the multitudes of volunteers who maintain it from Georgia to Maine. This is the first time we have attempted a 3 day hike, so I am looking forward to the challenge. If I have any energy left, I'll let you know how it goes.........
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