The Committed Runner

In several past posts, I've written about the importance of a running group. The support and friendships a group provides is awesome. Even as a group's dynamics change over time, the sense of accountability and support that a group provides is wonderful and something I miss when I'm not able to make it to my weekly runs. Life has been so hectic of late (we're just putting up our Christmas tree today), I have to admit that the past couple of months I've only made it to a handful of these weekly runs. All legit reasons (helping with a local 5K, visiting family, studying for big tests), but still I've missed those long runs, both for the physical endurance aspects as well as socializing with my running buddies. Hopefully after I finish my personal trainer schooling in January, I'll be more of a regular back at "The BlueLine" (where we start our weekly long runs and our group's namesake). Last night we received about 4" of snow and today we're supposed to get 3-5 more inches. Now for you guys up north, that ain't a heck of a lot of snow, but down South, that puts life at a stand-still. But yet today is still a Saturday and it's still the day of my running group's long run. Well, this morning, I had all good intentions of making it to the BlueLine even with the snow, because I knew I'd get a lot of flack (all good natured) from my running buddies for not making it. But, when I woke up at 5:30AM, my 9-year-old's big brown eyes were staring at me, soon followed by, "Daddy, I don't feel well." Well, how can you go for a run when that's at your bedside. So, up I got, hot chocolate I made, and comforting I did. Of course, she's all better now, even been out in the snow and now on her second cup of hot cocoa. Guess she just needed some daddy-time. Some of the very dedicated running buddies did make it out to the BlueLine and the made sure to rub it in. LOL!