Well we closed out 2015 in Oklahoma with some typical
Oklahoma weather; giving all of us stupid enough to spend the holidays running
a great lesson in what not to wear. I had some fairly big running weeks for the
last two, which gave me plenty of chances to be over dressed and sweating to
death, or freezing cold and dying of hypothermia. Most times in the same run.
If there is one thing that I hate about the winter time when it comes to
running it is the exponential growth in the amount of laundry. Many of my
running crew high tailed it out of town for the holidays, but I managed to find
plenty of poor saps to run with me, and even took advantage of a few solo run
opportunities, which I find acceptable in small numbers.
Sounds about right
If you are like me than the weekends are your times for big
miles and big brunches. Right now the Runner’s World training is going so that
makes for a sweet guaranteed running group for Saturdays. So for the 26th
I had to get in 16 miles. My good OLD running friend Jeff (I call him the cat
master) agreed to meet me before light to get in 8 miles so that I could join
the RW group for my final 8 at 8 o’clock. This worked out well, not only
because Jeff is a great runner and my little running buddy Rush managed to not
kill me while chasing squirrels, but because those solid miles with Jeff were
without rain and set me up for a killer final eight with the group.
Jeff in his natural Habitat
There are several awesome groups to run with at RW, you have
Ed and the Honey Badger, or Patty and the Dominators, but on this day I wondered
over to the fast group for no reason. We were joined by a few high school kids
from the Edison CC team, so the final 8 miles went at a stupid 7:30 pace;
pretty good for hill and rain. But it was deceiving because it was still fairly
warm outside. So on Sunday when the rain was still going I decided to just
brave the weather and do my 9 miles by myself. This turned out to be a terrible
idea, it was cold, the wind was crazy, and most importantly I had no one to
make suffer with me.
Just look at the Results
Then during the last week people started to trickle back
into town. So I conned Jenn O into going to the YMCA with me. I love the Y, and
have been going there my whole life. In fact if you happen to go into the
downtown branch you will see a banner for my mother who has been an instructor
for over 25 years. But anyways, Jenn told me that there is this secret (not
secret at all, I am just an idiot) cardio room upstairs that has two, count
them two, rowing machines. So my plan was that if I am taking a day off running
then I would hit one of these for 30 minutes for cross training. Let me tell
you a little training tip, rowing is hard. That is all. Then on Tuesday I took
Jenn and Jenny (yes everyone I know is named Jennifer so keep up) to one of my
favorite training spots, the road to the Botanical Gardens. It is a 3 mile out
and back with a vicious climb every time. We did it three time and on the last
lap I got a little in front of Jenn and Jenny (truth be told I think they only
let me get away so they could girl talk) and at this point it was fairly dark
out. I was wearing a high viz green hat and jacket and was running on the
correct side of the road and just ahead of my coming the other way the girls
were running along on the wrong side of the road. No big deal, I though, they will
just move over as I get close. Not what happened, I guess they were so caught
up in their conversation that they did not see me till I was about to run over
Jenny. This let to Jenny freaking out and screaming, and my laughing to myself
and shaking my head as I moved on down the road.
Brynna, Alyson, Rachael, Danielle, Jenn O, and Jenny down low
On New Year’s Eve Jenn and I hit the river early for our 9
miles, this time Rush was a lot less manageable but we survived, and then
figured we would take it easy until the festivities that night. The night did
not disappoint.
The True Runners, Sid, Evey, Pippin, Rush
It started at Victor’s crash pad before the Race into the New
Year, and we drove right by his place at first. That is because all the lights
were out in the house and there was this crazy strobe light in the living room.
I hesitantly approached the door, and walking into a full on crazy dance party.
As fun as this looked (not fun) I just made my way to the kitchen where there
was normal light and would just check on the craziness from time to time. In
the end the dance party was pretty much Rachael and a lot of destroyed pieces
of tensile all over Victor’s living room. All the girls dressed up for the run
in ball dresses, and I wore a tuxedo jacket, tie, and a vest for the race;
however, Victor did not have a sweet outfit. This had to be remedied, so I took
all the leftover pieces of tensile and piled them on his head, and Danielle
safety pinned it all to his stocking cap (crisis averted). The race was cold
but awesome as always, with Rachael crushing the course and coming in second
overall female at just over 20 minutes, but by far the fastest runner in a ball
gown.
Victor's Hat for the Win
New Year’s Day most of my running crew was at the Polar Bear
plunge. I did not attend this year, but have on several occasions. Out of this
has come a little bit of a New Year’s tradition of food at Stormy’s house after
the race. So I took the chance to get a jump start on the cooking. I had back
up after I got back from the gym, Wes showed up as support and we hit the store. In
years past we did waffles and such but I never felt like they were a big hit,
so this time I wanted to try something totally different. I talked Wes into us
trying a quiche, and he said “whatever dude” (standard Wes response). We retrieved
the items for our quest and attacked the kitchen. Brynna even made a
gluten-free pie crust so we would have that option covered. Before we knew it
we had 5 quiches going and I was getting a little nervous that we overdid it.
As if hearing my worries Jenn O called right then and said that she hoped I
would not be mad but like 15 people are coming over. So it all worked out. The
quiches were not a disaster, and other people brought enough snacks and alcohol
to cover us finishing the cooking. Now I was not going to drink much as I had
twenty miles in the morning, but that did not stop some people. I will not get
into the details, but let us just say the party went on for many hours, and
ended with someone almost going through a window (loss of balance not fighting)
and a lot of 90’s hip hop. What I mean to say is it was a total success.
The Polar Bear Crew
Finally we get to the last weekend of running, I was
particularly excited because this big weekend was followed by a down week, and
I really feel like I needed it. The 20 miles on Saturday went well, even though
I got there a little late and missed the early group. But despite the cold when
I pulled up there was Jenn O and Jenny waiting for me to show up so that we
could catch the group. We got going and finally caught the early Dommies group,
at which point Jenn O was feeling staying out late the night before and held back.
I was starting to get in the grove and convinced Jenny to go with me to get
some extra miles before the official RW group started. In the end I still had a
bunch of running to get done, and when I wrapped up (not alone thanks to Jeff
[not Cat Master Jeff, another Jeff] all runners have the same name) Wes was the
only one still at Runner’s World. So we decided to hit Brunch at the home base, McNellies. We had an awesome breakfast there, and plotted another run on Sunday
from McNellies so that we could finish and have brunch there again. Word of the plan got out and
it was such a great plan that we had Pip, Sarah, Scott, Allyson, Jenn O, Jenny
and Chris join us. Pip and Sarah had been out of town for two weeks visiting
their folks; the only problem for them was that it was 70 degrees in Georgia
and not 70 degrees in Tulsa. So Sarah took on the run with one arm warmer and
one glove somehow and almost died. She lived, and Jenny somehow
magically found us, because her text messaging screwed up the night before and
didn’t get our messages about running until we were already on the move. But
everything turned out right and we not only had a nice sized group but were
treated to some of the best running views you can get while road running as we
topped Reservoir Hill twice on the trip. And then, of course, we had McNellies
to greet us at the end who’s warm embrace of chicken and waffles or biscuits
and gravy ensured that all the caloric burn we had in those nine miles was immediately
undone.
A PSA to all
Ok well that was way too long, and I promise to keep the
future post shorter. I doubt they will be less rambley but hey, no one has to
read this crap. The main point I have about these last two weeks is the
importance of a great running crew. Those people you meet up with on the trails
or road are some of the best people around. And I know that if you are new to
running it can sometimes be intimidating to join such a large group, but it is
just like going to the gym for the first time, it might seem crazy at first and
you might not be sure what to do but there is a secret, we love to talk.
Runners love when people are interested in their training, and they are dying
to tell you all about it. So do yourself a favor, make a running plan (or have
someone help you make one, like Google) go to one of these runs and start
telling people about your plan, ask them about theirs and start comparing
notes. Running is never easy, and even for me it is a struggle to get up and
going every time. And, I hate to say this but just wanting to stay in shape or have a hot body is not going to get you out of bed in the dark and cold to get to those runs. You have to find out what running means to you, and decide what you need to do to stay engaged in it. It is not for the love of running that I do it as much as I do;
it is for those people standing in the dark and cold waiting for me. What kind of person
would I be if I let them down?
Just Look at those Faces, how could you say no?