Perseverance

Hi everyone!

This weekend definitely turned out to be a better weekend than I originally thought. The rain came down this week, and I totally thought we would be washed out all weekend.

Saturday's last Chili group and first meeting/trial for Peter's canyon group met at O'neil, and it turned out to be a absolute gorgeous day! We had a few new people come out and they did great! We did have a river crossing, and a lot of mud to deal with, but I had fun, and I hope you did too. I know the weather was cold, and the time changed a bit, but we will have a normal time of Thursday nights starting April 21st at 6pm. This will get you prepared for the races that are also on Thursdays and at 6pm. :)

Leona group...OMG! This is why perseverance is the title. We are set to meet at 6am at El Moro for the Leona group to run 26 miles, and I get there, and the trails are CLOSED! Everyone arrives, and we decide to go to Aliso Woods/Top of the World. We all caravan there, and get going (an hour later), and have to cancel on a couple of people that were meeting at later times. Tom leads us through beautiful wilderness that most of the group has never been through before, then it happens...Annalese falls down. She is a trooper, and we all get to Top of the world, and notice, from her knee to her ankle, she is all bloody. Its okay, she is fine...We head back out, and not 4 minutes later, she hyper extends her knee, and it locks into place. Oh man...we have a nice 2 mile walk downhill to get her back to the car. Poor baby. Annalese, I hope you are okay, and I am waiting for your Dr. report. In the meantme, I sent everyone else on there merry running way, while I kept Annalese company, and then I disconnected with Donna, and Elizabeth. Donna, had her whole run mapped out prior to even waking up in the morning, but then was shattered when she arrived. She recouped, and went back to El Moro after our run in Aliso Woods, and did 2 loops on her own to mentally prepare herself. Awesome job Donna! Elizabeth had all her miles in with what we did in Aliso, so I hope you had a great run! You did Awesome!

In the middle of all this, Sue had to change locations, and we were texting as we ran, because she didn't want to get up to meet us at 6, so she ended up meeting us at Top of the World, and finished out with Tom and Yolanda.

Tom, and Yolanda, you guys rock...I went back out and stayed on the canyon floor. When i got down to the pavement, i realized i wasn't going to find you, so i took the beautiful single track Tom showed us in the am back, and found 3 friends.  It was really something. I stood there for probably 10 minutes watching them, and they didn't mind. :) It really made my day. I guess the whole moral of this is, even tho life throws you curves, you just have to keep swinging! And guess what?! Everyone did, and i hope everyone had a great time. Annalese, You were so awesome, and I know you are going to heal up and rock Leona, and even play softball this season! :) (hummingbird told me so)

You guys inspire me and i am so proud of everyone. Please let me know where you want me at Leona. Elizabeth, do you want me to run with you? Do you want Pete at a certain aide station? You tell us, so we can make this experience the best we can for all of you! :)

This weekend, We have Chili Groups last Chili Race. We will see you guys at the race on Saturday! You are going to do Awesome!

Leona, I know you guys have Ragnar this weekend, and you are all going to do GREAT! Let us know if you are going to be up for a Sunday run. IDK...I think you are all ready, and really, it is better to be under trained than to try to get another long run in. You are all ready. I would rather you are all injury free, especially from Ragnar, and maybe some pavement issues after. Let us know! You are all doing Awesome!

Have a great week, and remember if you want to come out to our street runs on Monday and Wednesdays with A Snails Pace to get extra miles, please come on out to check it out. :)