running

I am back running.

It is so amazingly wonderful & freeing.  I ran 1.5 miles on Monday with the XC kids and I ran the WHITE TRAIL at Camp Stig today.  The white trail is the best trail run I've ever done.  Ups and downs and over logs...over creeks on logs, across streams...up a HUGELY steep muddy hill that has a rope assist...without which you would certainly roll back down 8 out of 10 climbs.  I ran it before practice because we'd never been there before & then we let the kids run it.  And then they wanted to run it again.  It's so energizing to see kids run a very hard mile trail and come out wanting to do it again.  Great practice!  And my foot feels 98.9%.  I take my Naproxen Sodium Tablets before the run & use my frozen water bottle after the run...and I'm doing great.  So happy.

Mike ran the Perfect 10-miler on Sunday.  He said it was harder than he thought.  The Cleveland 10-miler is pretty flat; not so with the trail through Lyndhurst.  We saw him & mile 6 with my sign & he smiled...so I think he liked it.  Then we drove to mile 8 where we saw him & got a few pictures.  Here's one:

I love the look on his mom's face across the street!  This is such a great picture of the family caught enjoying the moment.  Even Mike looks happy ~ and this is mile 8.

Then we went to the finish line where Mike had a super strong finish:

Such a powerful kick at the end!  He finished with an official time of:  1:24:59.3 ~ which was good for 247the place overall and 33rd in his age group.  Our friend Craig also ran...but when he finished his race he went the extra mile, literally & ran four laps of the track because his training schedule for his Columbus Marathon (first full) was to run 11 miles that Sunday morning.  Kinda crazy, mostly admirable.  I watched...anticipating my Monday run...fearful it would go poorly.  SO happy that it did not!  I won't be in the next race...but I hope to race soon.  Here's a shot of me and my sweaty man at the end.  I look pretty fresh!  No need to nap for me.  That other guy's gonna be out on the couch in about 3 hours.