On Saturday morning, I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm started wailing "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News (you know, one of the most memorable ones from Back to the Future). I dragged myself out of bed and looked out the window at the black sky with wet pellets cascading down. In my morning daze, I managed to put on my training garb and dash from the front door to my car. Why I bothered to dash, I'm not sure. If the rain didn't stop, I was still going to be outside in it for the next few hours.
I drove to Balboa park and when I made the turn from Burbank onto Balboa and saw the cones that were being placed to close Burbank, it dawned on me that when it rains, the Sepulveda basin floods and they close not only the park, but also the steets leading to the park. Uh oh.
But as 6:30 rolled around, and my fabulous TNT leaders found street parking and met outside of the closed park, we caught a break. Literally. A break in the storm. And miraculously, this break lasted for the entire practice and post-practice pot-luck. We revised our training schedule to account for the weather (i.e., no timed mile on wet slippery ground and no strength training because nobody wanted to lay down on top of the puddles).
Practice was really amazing, all things considered. We warmed up for 6 minutes up and down Balboa, stretched as a group and one of our amazing and inspiring participants led us in our mission moment. She spoke to us about how she was inspired by her mother, who passed away from a blood cancer about ten years ago. 100 pounds lighter, our amazing participant (who has already met her fundraising goal even though it's only the third week), decided to join TNT and run a marathon and celebrate life. Despite being such an inspirational person with such an inspirational message, she was nervous to speak to the group. She read from an excerpt of a letter that she had written. I was moved twice -- once by her story but the second time, by the courage it took her to share it with us. And I thought about how public speaking is probably most people's greatest fear...but at least on Saturday morning, we were all listening to our participant speak publicly not to judge, to insult, or to compare ourselves to her, but to hear what she had to say and to be inspired on our run. That's a good thing to keep in mind next time I need to speak to a group. The group wants the speaker to succeed (usually :-)).
After our mission moment and our "go TEAM" we were off. Because the weather was still nice, we ran through the park from Balboa towards Woodley, 25 minutes out and back. Because I wanted to take things slowly, I ended up walking 99% of the route. But just moving for the sustained period outdoors was so refreshing and invigorating. I saw hawks, an egret, some mist atop of the lake, and even a rainbow. All of which I would have missed had I not dragged myself out of bed. I enjoyed the company of old friends and new, and was reminded of how life is infinitely more enjoyable when I force myself to rise early and challenge myself on Saturday mornings.
A few moments before I got back into my car, the sky opened up and the clouds dumped two hours worth of collected unspent rain. My hips felt stiff.
And I can't wait to do it all over again next week!
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