I mentioned in my last post that I've been trying to take it easy this week to prepare for the 1/2 marathon on Sunday and that it has been incredibly boring. Enter Justinia, stage west coast. Justinia or "Stin" as I've grown to call her inspired me to run back in 2007 when I was a summer associate at my law firm. While I had always been a fitness enthusiast, running really wasn't my thing except to drop unwanted pounds in a hurry. Unfortunately, Stin moved to San Francisco last year and left me short one running buddy and lots of inspiration.
Lucky for me though, she makes frequent visits to NYC. Yesterday, she got in for work and we made plans to run this morning. I almost canceled--literally, I sent the text saying we should go another day b/c it was forecasted to be miserably rainy. But Wednesday was her only available morning for a run so I agreed to meet her at 6:45am at the entrance to the park near me.
So, I wake up this morning, look outside and not only was it raining, it was pouring, super wet out and still dark because of the daylight savings change on Sunday. Ugh!! I was seriously dreading this run. Nonetheless, I got ready and headed out the door. When I got to our meeting spot, I complained that it was miserable and my feet were wet. Stin even agreed--she's not used to the cold yucky NYC rain anymore. But we went on our way just the same.
About 10 minutes in, while catching up on each others lives I realized I was having an awesome time and the rain wasn't even bothering me anymore! We were moving along at a good pace despite constant conversation (well slow for Stin, since she's a speed demon, turned trail runner, turned ultramarathoner) We head up the west side to 102nd street, crossed the transverse to the east side and then headed to the bottom of the park and back up the west side. We parted ways at 72nd street, when she headed back to her hotel which was in midtown east.
Stin is one of my favorite running buddies and still my inspiration for running. When I first started in summer '07, I couldn't even make it up harlem hill and she stopped and walked with me and was patient and didn't even seem to mind that it was probably messing up her run. I'm still totally sad she moved to SF but she seems to like it out there, so that's good enough for me. As long as she keeps visiting, and running with me when she does!!
Rainy run with Stin by kelila83 at Garmin Connect - Details
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