Tina and I were planning some speedy hills for our lunch time run but in light of what happened yesterday, we decided to run 2.62 miles for Boston instead. or 4.2k for all of the Canadians in the house. Totally do-able during lunch.
I wanted to wear a race shirt, but couldn't find either of my half or full marathon shirts from Disney (so much for blue and yellow) instead, I donned my Goofy shirt. I decided to keep my blue shoes on for the run even though it meant they would likely be too wet to wear in the office all afternoon.
And I made us some lovely "Boston Ribbons" to wear on our run.
I wasn't feeling an interval speed workout and neither was Tina (though a rousing game of running tag was discussed, it was quickly squashed) so we just ran. Ran to lighten our hearts. Ran to clear our minds. Ran to bond as runners. We ran hard and it kind of turned our 2.62 miles into a tempo run for us both...but it was exactly what we needed today. To finish a race that so many couldn't finish.
With an uphill start that wouldn't even come close to rivaling Heartbreak Hill, the wind was bitter for both the start and finish of our run, but we persevered. The sidewalks were a mess, but we picked our way across them. As luck would have it, we had to run through the parking lot at the end of the run and 2.62mi came right at the entrance to the lot...with the gates - we had a perfectly framed finish line for our efforts (we totally failed at taking a pic with the gates...but you can kind of see them at the top of the pic above Tina's head).
When we crossed, a departing car rolled down the window and asked us if this was our finish line. That made me smile.
I walked Tina back to her car so we could continue chatting a while. It was good to be with a runner girl who gets what yesterday means to runners. All I could feel yesterday was that I didn't want to be in my office, waiting for the day to end. I wanted to spend those moments in a coffeeshop with my runner girls. Sharing and supporting through the tragedy. I didn't have that yesterday...but I had a taste of it today.
Here's how Nike saw today's run...
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In other news - I signed myself up for another MEC race. On May 4, I have 12k with a strong finish on the schedule but they have a 15k option at this race so I am going to run that instead to get my miles in.
oh and these?
Nowhere near as comfy as my Blue and Yellow Sauconys...but at least the shoes I had in my desk were still blue...