Dear Blog-ary,
I was feeling pretty optimistic about the weather on Thursday afternoon before class. The clouds had parted slightly around 4:30pm and the rain was holding off. Just to be sure I was prepared for anything, I thoughtfully wrapped my feet in bread bags before slipping them into my shoes, to keep them from getting wet in case of a down pour. As I ran out the door I found that my optimism was not enough to save me from what the forecast had in store. The rain was coming down hard!
As I had suspected, when I arrived at Mount Doug Park the equipment was away. In this type of weather you need to keep moving. Our plans for a more stationary strengthening workout were abandoned and Loreli decided that we were going to be running. As long as we kept moving we would stay warm. Even though keeping dry was certainly out of the question we were all happy to get moving!
We ran and we ran. We continued to run ALL the way up the mountain! At some points we turned around to repeat a hill, or would power walk to a certain point. We pushed ourselves all the way up that mountain. The harder it rained, the harder we pushed. I knew there was no turning back and I concentrated hard on my pace and my footing. Once we were at the top I looked below to see that the city was covered in a thick blanket of fog. It was getting dark now, and only a few bleak lights of the city could be seen through the mist.
After a few squats and lunges at the top we made our careful descent down the mountain, through a river which used to be the road. The rain refused to let up, and we were all eager to reach the bottom. Before we got there it became completely dark through the forest. I said to one of the trainers,“Who does this anyway? I feel so hard core!”. To which she responded, “We ARE hard core!”
We made it to the path, that led us safely across the road, into the field beside where our cars were parked. We had made it! We felt like we couldn’t drive away without a group photo. We needed some proof for recognition of what we had just accomplished. Maybe it was the fact that we were completely drenched, our runner were covered in mud, or that we had done it in the dark! We reached a new level of runners euphoria. With a wild sense of victory we grinned and flexed as we posed for the camera. This is certainly one training workout I will NEVER forget! . . . Kirsten Wolf