I think Lynndi Lauper thought I had fallen off the face of the blogging Earth, but I am here! I have been busy doing all kinds of fun things that I should have told you about weeks ago (when I actually did them)!
Where to begin? How about with the first fun activity?
I read a blog written by Kristin Armstrong (on Runnersworld.com) in which she described going on an all day run with her best friend. She described running all over town and stopping to eat and visit friends along the way. I immediately knew that this was something I had to do. Unfortunately, every time I described this event to my friends I got reactions that ranged from "we knew you were crazy but didn't realize you were THAT crazy" to "dear God, that just sounds like torture." There was only one person I know, who is as crazy in that regard as I am. So, I sent a link to the blog to my best pal and running buddy WS. She was immediately on board!
We started plotting and planning like fiends...and then we realized that all our planning completely defeated the point of the day of running! It was meant to be a day of FUN, with no agenda and no mapped routes. Just run when and where we felt like going. The only scheduling we did was with friends along the way, to make sure they would be around.
Here is how the day played out:
we met at Sholem pool at 8:30am. WS realized she forgot her ipod so we drove (yeah, looking back we both realized that should have been incorporated into our run) to her house to get the ipod. She didn't want to wear it right away so we both put our ipods in my Camelback. We were armed with gatorade, water, cash and our gift cards for free Smoothie King!
Our first stop was Panera. Have I mentioned how I gave up coffee? well, once in a while, a sister needs her coffee and embarking on a full day of running seemed like a good day for java! we had our coffee and took some pictures, then headed off to east Urbana to visit the lovely and brilliant Lynndi Lauper. She was a very gracious hostess and provided us with water and ice cubes (which I gratefully stuck in my running hat to cool off my head). after stinking up Lynndi's office while we had a lovely discussion about mental health care, we snapped a few more pictures then headed out.
Next stop: Smoothie King! I got the energizer smoothie and it worked! We carried out smoothies with us as we ran the next leg to an Urbana health care facility where I visited some of my colleages. From there it was on to the quad to meet more friends for lunch. As we continued the run, it was getting more and more overcast, which was very lovely because by this point I had sweated through my shirt a hundred times over!! It actually RAINED while we were eating.
I LOVE to run in the rain and I got to enjoy a nice light rain while we picked up our run after lunch. We went to downtown Champaign to visit one of WS's friends. And then we realized we didn't have anyone else to visit. We were going to see WS's kids at the library at 3:00 but it was only 2:00. So we kept running around downtown Champaingn, through West Side Park and around town. Then WS decided she wanted a cupcake...so we headed back to downtown and she got a cookies and cream cupcake. I got more water. We both got all kinds of looks from people we passed. We were a pretty fierce combination of stank, sweat and well STANK. But, as I like to call us, we are a couple of fierce bitches...and fierce bitches don't mind a little sweat or stank!!
We made our way to the library to see WS's children. did I mention the strange looks we got when running OUTSIDE, well they were compounded when we took our slimy selves INSIDE! We didn't stay at the library long (both out of respect for the patrons with smelling range of us and out of fear that at this point if we didn't keep moving we would stop for good)!
Amazingly, each time we got up and ran again, my legs felt good and strong. We ran back to the pool. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to actually take a dip. But, at the end of the day, we were still speaking to each other, we had a great day of bonding and (in 6 and a half hours) we ran 17.5 miles!!!
I HIGHLY recommend that all of you try a day of running.
tune in next time to hear about my other big summer adventure...
Where to begin? How about with the first fun activity?
I read a blog written by Kristin Armstrong (on Runnersworld.com) in which she described going on an all day run with her best friend. She described running all over town and stopping to eat and visit friends along the way. I immediately knew that this was something I had to do. Unfortunately, every time I described this event to my friends I got reactions that ranged from "we knew you were crazy but didn't realize you were THAT crazy" to "dear God, that just sounds like torture." There was only one person I know, who is as crazy in that regard as I am. So, I sent a link to the blog to my best pal and running buddy WS. She was immediately on board!
We started plotting and planning like fiends...and then we realized that all our planning completely defeated the point of the day of running! It was meant to be a day of FUN, with no agenda and no mapped routes. Just run when and where we felt like going. The only scheduling we did was with friends along the way, to make sure they would be around.
Here is how the day played out:
we met at Sholem pool at 8:30am. WS realized she forgot her ipod so we drove (yeah, looking back we both realized that should have been incorporated into our run) to her house to get the ipod. She didn't want to wear it right away so we both put our ipods in my Camelback. We were armed with gatorade, water, cash and our gift cards for free Smoothie King!
Our first stop was Panera. Have I mentioned how I gave up coffee? well, once in a while, a sister needs her coffee and embarking on a full day of running seemed like a good day for java! we had our coffee and took some pictures, then headed off to east Urbana to visit the lovely and brilliant Lynndi Lauper. She was a very gracious hostess and provided us with water and ice cubes (which I gratefully stuck in my running hat to cool off my head). after stinking up Lynndi's office while we had a lovely discussion about mental health care, we snapped a few more pictures then headed out.
Next stop: Smoothie King! I got the energizer smoothie and it worked! We carried out smoothies with us as we ran the next leg to an Urbana health care facility where I visited some of my colleages. From there it was on to the quad to meet more friends for lunch. As we continued the run, it was getting more and more overcast, which was very lovely because by this point I had sweated through my shirt a hundred times over!! It actually RAINED while we were eating.
I LOVE to run in the rain and I got to enjoy a nice light rain while we picked up our run after lunch. We went to downtown Champaign to visit one of WS's friends. And then we realized we didn't have anyone else to visit. We were going to see WS's kids at the library at 3:00 but it was only 2:00. So we kept running around downtown Champaingn, through West Side Park and around town. Then WS decided she wanted a cupcake...so we headed back to downtown and she got a cookies and cream cupcake. I got more water. We both got all kinds of looks from people we passed. We were a pretty fierce combination of stank, sweat and well STANK. But, as I like to call us, we are a couple of fierce bitches...and fierce bitches don't mind a little sweat or stank!!
We made our way to the library to see WS's children. did I mention the strange looks we got when running OUTSIDE, well they were compounded when we took our slimy selves INSIDE! We didn't stay at the library long (both out of respect for the patrons with smelling range of us and out of fear that at this point if we didn't keep moving we would stop for good)!
Amazingly, each time we got up and ran again, my legs felt good and strong. We ran back to the pool. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to actually take a dip. But, at the end of the day, we were still speaking to each other, we had a great day of bonding and (in 6 and a half hours) we ran 17.5 miles!!!
I HIGHLY recommend that all of you try a day of running.
tune in next time to hear about my other big summer adventure...
I did something similar tonight! I ran four miles while relistening to the podcast about social isolation and its effects on the brain, and then I did 350 various ab crunches. No shower though. HA HA HA HA
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