Cheater

I officially cheated on my running group this weekend. To make a long story relatively short, I arranged to run with Mary and Cass, who I met through a mutual friend, at 5:30am on Saturday. I needed to get in my 12 miles before going to work and to my surprise, the two agreed to run that early. Well, thanks to my sister, she was able to watch the kiddies and I didn't have to run so early. I still wanted to run with Mary and Cass, so I ditched the group run at 7am for a run with the girls.

Little did I know that we would actually pass my running group about halfway through our run. I lowered my head in shame, but then yelled across the road, "I'm cheating on you!" Both Mary and Cass commented that I was not good at being incognito.

Maybe I should have borrowed their outfits from the Allerton Trail run to be a little less conspicuous...Mary is pictured below as Mario and Cass as Luigi.

Or, I could have gotten dolled up like when we all met. I guess I'll know for next time.

As for the run, it was great. We meandered through Champaign and encountered a bit of wind. It was nice to have some new conversation and catch up since our last run together which was in December. All of us had come a long way since then, Mary, a seasoned marathoner, continued well with her advanced training and Cass, a newbie like me, was working through some ITband issues, but has been successful so far in the training.

Both are moms too, so it was nice to talk about the kids, but most of our conversations were centered on running tips, upcoming races, and ailments.

We came in at 2:26, which included 2 bathroom stops and a couple of quick stops for refueling.

I have a pretty big week ahead--5 miles today, 10 on Wednesday, and instead of my 5 miler on Friday it is going to be as close to a 20 miler as I can squeeze in. I'm headed to Mexico Saturday morning, so I'm getting in as many miles as I can before leaving.