Runners Aren't Crazy

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:45 AM, drove to the local Y and met up with six others to drive almost an hour to a random parking lot that we had frequented a few times before.  Here, we met up with Alyssa (she drove further than we did), who I'd never met in person before.  We all piled into one vehicle to meet up with two other people, another one of whom had never met any of us before.  We all made our way through the woods, mountains and rocks along the Appalachian Trail section of the JFK 50 course.  Amazingly, I had a good memory from last year and knew where to go when we reached the top of the hill.  The rocks also seemed better than last year, I'll still be cursing at them and the climb but it didn't seem as bad as I'd remembered.

We ended up back at the random parking lot.  We were all dripping sweat.  I am usually not a big sweater but my shorts were wringing wet by the end of this run.  Humidity is such a wonderful thing.  I played taxi back to the start line and on the second trip squeezed seven people plus coolers and bags into my CR-V.  Cozy!  Crazy for a Saturday?  Not to me, maybe to others.

This morning, I woke up early again to run and walk my dogs before heading up to the shelter.  Here, I loaded two dogs into the car and took another four in the shelter's van which my husband agreed to drive.  It seems he did not think I'd be a stellar driver of a large cargo van.  Whatever.  We drove over to the rail trail where once again we had more people than dogs (which actually works out well because sometimes extra hands are needed depending on when people leave).  A bunch of people willing to give up their Sunday morning to run with a bunch of hounds and pit bulls.  Crazy for a Sunday morning?  Not to me but maybe to others.  The dogs covered 29 miles collectively.  I'd call it success.

Also, this guy may be my new favorite running buddy.