Running circles around my friends

Sarah wanted me to write that. We ran circles around Danielle and Nancy. Literally, of course. Have you ever gotten to the point with running where you have a ways to go, but you have to stop for a streetlight, and it hurts so much to re-start after stopping that you just have to keep moving?

Sarah and I did this morning. So standing in a median, more than 10 miles into our run, we ran in circles until the light changed and we could run straight again.

In all we did 12.4 miles this morning in approximately 2:15 - that includes stops at lights, etc. I think we ran just under a 10-minute mile average.

And it felt really, really good. Sure, at the end little things were kind of achy. But in general, it was really fun.

And how incredibly lucky am I to have THREE friends insane enough to get up way before dawn to run this kind of distance? Seriously. It's pretty amazing.

And then, even more wonderful: I had to be at work quickly because I had an early-morning conference call. So Nancy was going to my favorite coffee place and I couldn't go. Well, Nancy got my coffee for me, called a friend in my building to come out to the front and get it, and my friend brought it to me while I was on the phone. And to think, I was about to down a diet coke because I didn't have time to get good caffeine before the phone call.

I'm really busy at work right now. Actually, I'm really busy in general - there's a ton going on at work, at church, at home, and in my family, plus I'm going to Germany on Saturday for work, so life just feels insane right now. Which is why I didn't blog yesterday, but I did work out: I swam 3300 yards (plus some water-polo drills, courtesy of my swim workout coach - fun, but not super sport-specific), and then did my intense bike ride with the club. The ride was good - I had decent power up the hills and felt good about it, but it wasn't a really long ride because, like I said, so busy this week.

But it's good. Man, running 12.4 miles is so good for my soul. I just feel so calm and happy now. Can I do this every day?