church of optimism - gerlinda

last week was pretty ho-hum, running-wise. i was supposed to do 3-6-4-13, and instead i did something like 3-3-5-14.

but the 14 (!) was awesome. my friends rama & lauren went with me to the silver comet trail. the leaves are in full color, and they were snowing down around us as we ran. the sun was out, really out, for the first time in a couple weeks. it was so toasty and lovely in the sun and so cool and pine-needle quiet in the shade.

my friend lauren has started her own "church" called the church of optimism. we are the 3 charter members, and we meet occasionally, usually on sunday mornings, to hang out in nature and talk about stuff-that-is-not-so-trivial. lauren called our 14-miler a church of optimism meeting, and indeed, as we passed mile 6, there was a gorgeous, long, peeling-paint bridge drenched in sunshine, overlooking a golf course. lauren was a few yards ahead of me and i saw her reach out her arms like she wanted to hug the world. the whole run felt good like that...there was never a moment where i wanted to quit, even as i took my occasional walk breaks. i finished in 2:21, and so beat my 1/2 marathon time + ran 9 extra 10ths... my legs felt rubbery and well-used for the rest of the day.