This week I was really looking forward to joining up with my running club. Finally, I am going to run with my group again! Getting my things ready last night felt a bit out of sorts. The same thing happened last Friday as I was gathering my items for the weekend races. I completely forgot to charge my Garmin. I couldn’t find the outfit I was going to wear. What did I need to put in my hydration pack?? Agh!! This time around wasn’t as dramatic. But I did forget to charge my Garmin. Ohh, I had plenty of time in the morning to charge it. Besides we were only running 7 miles and I was pretty confident I had enough juice in my Garmin to get me through them.
As I was heading over to Santa Monica, it dawned on me the last time I completed a run with my group was on September 27th. That’s 7 weeks ago!! I was seriously surprised. It honestly hasn’t felt that long! A few short weeks ago I was able to run 1.5 miles with them, but that was all. I sure have missed running an entire run with them.
On our way to Reverse Temescal.
This morning we got to run a route I was very familiar with. It’s the route that prevented me from running with the group for the past 7 weeks. We call it Reverse Temescal. Many of us have run it before, but there were certainly a few who haven’t. Boy, were they in for a surprise! Today, was all about the hills. We need them. Hills make us stronger. Hills make us better runners. Hills are our friend. Not going to lie that when I heard we were running this way, my heart dipped a little. Running this route scares me. However, we didn’t end up going the exact same way so that definitely lifted my anxiety. Instead of running towards Sunset Blvd., we made a detour towards a gate that took us to a bridge. I remember running through here many years ago and I distinctly recall there being a stream. When I looked over, it would appear that stream has since disappeared. Maybe the stream was in another area, but the sight of seeing this quiet peaceful place, just made me so sad.
Where are you stream?
After we took a few group photos, we made our way back. When we were about to run up the very last hill, we came across a Little Free Library. I’ve seen a much smaller one before, but this one I found to be quite sizable. This was the first time I’ve seen this library in this area and the last time I ran this route, it was definitely not there, so it’s fairly new within the last month or so. If I had known, I would have contributed some books. Maybe next time.
Books!!!!
I know at some point during this season I’m going to run the entire Temescal route again and I’m going to run along the same portion of trail I rolled my ankle on. And I will be ready for it. I’ve got to face my fears at some point, right?
In the meantime, I celebrated these 7 miles in 7 weeks with a post-run smoothie. That’s right. I’m celebrating every single mile I get to have!! And next week, I hope to be celebrating 16 miles with my group.
Thanks for reading and Happy Running!
