Good luck, Karen!  I'm sure hoping your having better weather in the N Carolina mountains than we're having in the Ga ones.  Really wet. Shades of Houston, but  less wind today than yesterday.

It was really windy yesterday a. m.and we lost power just as I was getting ready to shower.  Waited...it stayed off...called gym-they had power so I went in there. Thank goodness for a gym membership! It put me behind, so   didn't go back to gym, but did get in an easy 5 at home later.

Carol, good for you for making it to the pool! Glad it was nice.

I'll be back later...

Good morning all!

I definitely have to chalk this week up to a "life happens" week.  I haven't been able to run, due to "life" since Monday.  Much to my chagrin, I am letting go of trying to push to meet my goals this month.  I'll call it an learning opportunity.   It may be too ambitious to try to increase miles in the merry month of February.

I have committed to starting an informal running group to encourage and support people who want to work through the C25K program on the way to our Girls on the Run 5K.  I would love for the group to become SoleMates for the GOTR program.  A few of my staff members are going to join me, and then some folks from the community to work close enough to park to get there for the lunch hour.

My Board of Directors did my performance review this week.  JEEZE... you'd think I was still twelve or something, the way I stress over being "evaluated."  And, of course, the anxiety was all for naught.  The review went very well, and I ended up feeling quite good about my past year.  

I followed the footsteps of the Founding Director who is an icon in our field (statewide and Nationally). The old joke goes something like this: "what do you call a the Director who follows a founder?"   Answer?   "Interim."   Second Directors last an average of 2 years.  I am in year seven and the staff has finally become "my" staff.  It has been a long, hard slog... but oh so worth it.  

I went back and did some catching up on what you girls have been up to.  I appreciate the nice mix of the personal and the running with this group.  Y'all are awesome! 

Good morning Camille and Lisa.  

Today - Since I have had such a nice, ummmm, recovery week (right), I'm going to do a long run.  I'm hoping for 5 miles.  40 laps is a lot of boring laps, but I feel so good when I'm done!

Be well,

10.5 for me  Pouring rain and 40 degrees.  I had a weird histamine reaction when I got back and had to put cortaide all over my arms.  It went away but was strange.  Never had that before.

Go Karen go!

I've been following the Mount Mitchell Challenge on their Facebook page, and the runners who are in look like they're in pretty good shape. Fingers crossed for Karen!

Julie hope the run went well.  7 years is great.  I think everyone stresses on performance reviews.

Camille our weather is really wet too.  We have large puddles all over the ya

Gatsby no idea what caused it.  It went away which is good.  I'm allergic to rhododenrons and azalea flowers but they aren't in bloom and I have to be brushed up against them or very windy and it wasn't.  Plus my arms were covered.

Cindy oh I didn't know they were on fb.  May have to check out how Karen is doing.

Cked FB page...she wasn't in an hour ago.  An 82 yr old's pic is up and he looks great.  Hope he did the marathon-I'll feel like a real wuss if he did the Challenge..  I wanna be like him at 82!

Gatsby, I'd wondered about you. Glad you're feeling better!

I just did the hilly loop and somehow spaced out and turned on a different street-got in an extra mile and a new view. 50 and damp, but no rain or wind-pretty nice. Saw 3 or 4 pileated woodpeckers-they seemed to be together. Had bright red heads

Awwww, I love you guys. Just read through all the posts....

That race was freaking hard. Honestly, I'm so glad they had to change the course because I don't know if I could have done it if they hadn't.  There was a 3 hour cutoff for the Challenge at the 14 mile aid station (turnaround for the marathon) - I got there in 2 hours and 55 minutes! And I was really pushing. The trails were muddy, rocky, and at times ice covered. Apparently a lot of people, including people who have run the Challenge several times, missed the cutoff.

The change in the race was that at 14 miles, instead of going up to the summit on more trail, we ran up the main road to the park (the Blue Ridge Parkway and the main road to the park were closed to traffic for weather). This took 3 miles off the total distance (my garmin read 37 miles exactly at the finish), and allowed me to get some decent running in. I really don't know if I could have done the original course.

I finished in 8 hours and 1 minute exactly. Couldn't quite produce a finishing kick for a 7:59 or 8:00 even. Don't care, just happy to be done and to have done it. Will save the rest for a race report. Parts of it were awesome and fun and parts of it just really sucked.

May be tomorrow before I get back for personals. I am just beat. May venture out for ice cream, but that will be about the extent of my exciting Saturday night.

karen