It finally stopped raining, at least for today. It felt glorious to be able to run outside. I didn’t mind the heat and humidity or the bugs or the less than pleasant smell that came from the stagnant overflowed creek water.
My four miles wasn’t incredibly fast, but it wasn’t really about speed today. It was definitely about camaraderie. Thursday nights for several years have been spent running with a group of three other woman. I have talked about them before in my blog. For the last couple months we have yet to all be together at the same time-someone is traveling, someone is sick, someone is stuck working. There was always something that kept us from gathering as a foursome. Tonight we were finally ALL together.
Marilyn even went so far as to say come hell or high water she would be at our meeting spot. I promptly replied given the weather and rain as of late, either one of those had great potential to happen. It was a humorous way to start our run together….which actually starts a few hours before any running takes place when we all text to see who will be there and why they won’t be, if they can’t come. It’s our habit.
Finding out that we would all be together again was exciting! It was incredibly helpful for all of us who each seemed to have a day/week that was relieved by the friendship and feel of sunshine on our faces.
My day at the office was a bit stressful, and ended on a less than positive note. I have a particular coworker who struggles with the role of women, especially a lesbian woman who is in a position of authority. Our afternoon interaction did not go especially smoothly-and our conversation ended with him telling me he wasn’t going to talk any more because he was hungry and cranky. Where upon he promptly left my office. I decided shortly there after to leave for the day, I didn’t want to interact further with him and allow his mood and behavior to further stress my day.
I was proud of how I handled the situation. I vented briefly to my mother on the car ride home, verbalizing what had been my internal decision to leave early. It felt nice to be able to say out loud that I wasn’t going to allow someone else’s emotions to ruin my day and my time with friends.
Any remaining stress evaporated in the sunshine and the laughter of friends running through town. While I would have liked to have gone a little faster it would have meant missing out on conversations and laughter with friends, which was exactly what I needed today.
Friendship and running make a fantastic pair!
Happy Running!
GeekyTriathlete 