Familiar Faces

In Orlando I saw many familiar faces in the running community. I trained with some of them, ran alongside many of them during races, or crossed paths with them during one of my runs. In Fort Lauderdale I haven't really come across many familiar faces since moving here 2.5 years ago. I visited some of the local running clubs and run often, but I typically see different faces since it seems as though people aren't very consistent. However, recently, I've started seeing familiar faces, and it feels pretty good.

Moving to Fort Lauderdale has probably been one of the riskiest decisions of my life. I moved to be closer to family, and took on a whole new job to get here. I was the reason we moved. My husband didn't end upcoming down until two months after I moved which was pretty rough. My job in Orlando was pretty awesome, and I still miss it all of the time. I knew that  once I made that decision to leave Orlando, I had to leave for something better. After all, if I was leaving for something mediocre than it wouldn't be worth it. However, moving also meant leaving all of my friends. I had a ton of friends in Orlando and was able to find something to do every weekend without any real trouble. Making new friends here hasn't been too difficult, but it's definitely not the same. I know it will take time, but it feels as though time is moving by so slow. Even with all these difficulties, I don't regret any of it. I love South Florida; I missed it.

This brings me to this morning's run. I planned to do my long run this morning since I took yesterday off. I figured 6 miles would be a good distance, and picked my route. I decided I would run a decent pace, and so I brought my Garmin along (and my Ipod of course). During my run, I came up to a girl traveling in the opposite direction, and as she got closer I recognized her as the girl in my running group I've been talking to lately. I raced against her in one of my last races and pulled in 10 seconds before she did. Again, I only came in early because my friend M was pushing me, otherwise she would have beat me. During our training runs she shoots out and overtakes the pack, leaving me behind. Overall, she's a great runner. I waved at her as she passed by, and we exchanged that runner grin. You know, the one where it's like - Yup. We're crazy for being out here early when no one is out. I miss those exchanges.

I kept chugging along until I got to my turnaround. I almost laughed as I turned around, because the last time I picked this route, I was huffing and puffing. I pretty much felt like death. This run was so much different, and I actually tried picking up the pace. As I looked at my watch I made a mental note to try to get my run in under 50 minutes. I felt like that was a decent goal and I picked it up a little bit. As I got down to less than a mile left on my run, I knew it was going to be close. I ended up sprinting it in, and freaking made it with one second to spare. It really sucked and I was completely winded. It's crazy how I can hit these targets so easily during races, but in training I'm sucking wind.

After my run I figured I would do something nice for my husband and finish one of his chores for the weekend: the yardwork. I totally kicked butt and got everything done. Not only was that an additional calorie burner for me, but it scored me major wife points lol. As I always say - #winning.