Gratitude Day 4 - Running (and the community that comes with it)

So.  Today was a pretty shitty day.  A large school district who shall remain nameless got all up in our kool-aid when they didn't know the flavor.  I am having the worst allergy attack of my life.  One of my students has been missing since Saturday.  Ok, I know.  One of those really puts the other two in perspective.  And it was a shitty day.

Anyway, I got home at 4:30 (a record) and it was still light out.  I was in a foul mood and knew I needed to get some exercise.  So I put on my running shoes and headed out the door.

Here's the thing.  You can not feel bad when you're running!  Ok.  Let me rephrase that.  You can definitely feel physical pain, and like you want to curl up in a ball and have someone carry you home.  What you can't feel is grumpy.  There are no foul moods in running!  The adrenaline and distraction caused by the heavy breathing and left over muscle soreness from the body pump class you overdid on Saturday get your mind off the foulness at the beginning.  And then you feel like such a badass, it's like "Hey, shitty day.  You ain't got nothing on me.  I'm running a FOURTEEN MINUTE MILE!!!"  Wait.  Did I just say that out loud?

More important than the running, though, are the running friends I've made since I started running in March of 2010.  They are broken down into two amazing groups.

Group 1: The Maya Angelou Academy Running Club -- Matt, Julie, Chelsea, Leah, and occasional other guests

Why they are special: Whiskey "water" stops on the bridge, creepy runs around the razor wire, deer sightings, doing the hills, and running out the massive nest of feelings that comes with working with incarcerated kids.  This was the group that took me from 5k to marathon, that kept my training up during the week, that always remembered kleenex for me when my nose started bleeding 5 runs in a row, and that pushed me from lily pad to lily pad.

Group 2: Team In Training -- Coach John, Coach Kristin, Dania, Mary, Jen, Joe Funk, and more

Why they are special: Well, they have to be special if I get up at 7:00 on Saturday mornings to run for over 3 hours.  Seeing their smiling faces, knowing I could be wrapped up in Dania's ridiculously warm parka, and hearing their inspirational words got me through some cold, long, tough runs.  And we run for a cause -- finding a cure for blood cancers.

Today I am grateful for running and for the community that comes with it.  I haven't found my running community out in Denver yet, so please know that you guys are logging loads of imaginary miles around the lake for now.