Super Sunday

Since I don’t really like football (although that Tom Brady…yum!), I thought it would be a nice time to post. Living with three males has left me with a full afternoon to myself because they can’t seem to pry themselves away from the television – and they want Wienerschnitzel for dinner (ick!) – go figure! I just bought “Mountain Madness – Scott Fischer, Mount Everest & a Life Lived on High,” by Robert Birkby, so after making the hot dog run for the guys, I plan to take a hot bath and read in bed. The best kind of evening.

Yesterday, I did a quick 14 miler with the group and then pilates. We had a full day of stuff to do, so I needed to be done fairly early. This morning, I met Luis and Kiko at 6 am for a quick 6 mile warm-up before we picked up the rest of the group. Along the way, we met up with our “speedsters” – Angie, Kevin, Larissa, and Erika – who are all training for Boston. This is our potential sub-3 hour marathon group. When we saw them heading our way, we decided it was in our best interest to go ahead and start because we knew they would catch us quickly. They were only doing 10, so that meant they were going to do it really fast. As we have all learned the hard way, if you run your first few miles with them, you will suffer for the rest of the run!

At 7:00 we were joined by Salvador, Nathan, Tony, and Joaquin. This loop, we decided to get on dirt, so we headed for the canals which end up at the river. The run had risen, raising the temps to mid 40s, so it turned into a beautiful morning. Because El Paso has mountains and a lush valley on the Rio Grande, we get to see a wide variety of topography while we run. We started facing the mountains, watching the sunrise from the east, red and gold, spent the middle section on the river, watching the ducks, egrets, and cranes swimming, then ended the run on the canals, stopping to eat pecans from an orchard. We parked next to a Catholic church, so we got to hear the bells peal on the hour when we looped back around to pick people up. Do you ever have runs that just seem magical? Well, this was one of those runs. You just want to say, “Thank you.”

We ended up with just over 26 miles, happy and feeling good about life. When I got home, my crew was waiting for me to head over to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Ramon’s, for Huevos Rancheros. I took a quick shower, put my hair in a baseball cap, and we headed out. Clearly, everyone was starving, because we all managed to clean our plates! Yum! Ramon’s is in the shopping center where all the local cyclists meet on Sunday, so it was fun to watch them come back in from a long ride. At some point, I would love to learn how to cycle so that I could try a triathlon, but I am such a chicken! We don’t have any bike lanes here, so you are taking your life in your own hands every time you ride unless you ride on dirt, like at the river. Anyway, something to anticipate for the future.

I hope everyone has had a great week!