The best compliment.

There's a woman in my neighborhood who walks a lot. I've seen her around and we usually chat a bit when we pass each other. Unless I'm running a specific workout, I like the break of chatting with her, mostly, I imagine, because there is rarely anyone to chat with in my neighborhood. There are only a handful of people who walk regularly and maybe one or two other runners but that's about it.

So anyway, I see this woman out and about a lot -- sometimes with one or both of her sons, sometimes alone. Two weeks or so ago when I was out for a run, I saw her and her younger (10-ish?) son and noticed something different. They weren't walking. They were running. Running! We crossed paths on one of the hills and gave each other a happy, hearty, "Hi!" Well, the son didn't. He was focused. But the woman and I did.

The other day I saw her again, alone. Again running. Again we crossed paths and again we said, "Hi." I also gave her two thumbs-up because I'm dorky like that. A little later in the run, we crossed paths again and this time we stopped to chat. I said something really deep like, "Hey, you're running today!" And she proceeded to give me the best compliment. She said something about how she kept seeing me out running and enjoying it, even when I was running up all the big hills and she just thought she should give it a shot. So she did!

Really? I inspired you to run? Holy cannoli!

She's doing a walk/run combination now and liking it. At some point, she said, she hopes to be able to run all the way up the hills like I do. She also said how she wished she had gone to the Freihofer's Run for Women last month (the big all-women 5k in Albany) and I went on and on (probably for too long) about how awesome the race is, how amazing it is to run with all women, blah, blah, blah. We chuckled together like old pals. She asked a question or two and I shared some advice. Then we each set off on our own way, in opposite directions.

I ran home with a buoyancy in my step uncharacteristic of the end of a run. I was just so happy that I had maybe had a little something to do with this woman starting to run. I think that's the coolest. Absolutely the coolest.

Happy Monday, everyone!

~ Felice

Gear giveaway winner!

Phew! Lots of entries for the awesome running gear giveaway!

Using random.org, I picked one winner this morning and the winner is . . . Oz Runner! Lucky guy.

Oz (do people call you that?), send me an email with your info: The running shoes you'd like, shoe size, shirt size and your address. I'll get it right over to Strands so you can get your gear.

Now, with that, I'm off to enjoy the day. Have a great weekend, everyone! And good luck to all the racers!!

~ Felice

Rolling two times.

You know what I did? I shook things up completely.

In my last post, I wrote about rolling with it. After I pressed "publish post" though, I started to think a little more. Danger! Danger! And while doing that thinking, I wondered why I couldn't be 15 minutes late or why I couldn't forgo blow-drying and straightening my hair. I mean, sometimes, shouldn't running come first?

Well, yeah, it should. I'm the queen of flexibility when it comes to running -- I run around my life and that more-or-less works. But, yesterday, after thinking for a while, I decided that I was going to roll with it in a different way.

As soon as Owen got home from work, I headed out for a second run. Second run! Twice in one day! I don't know -- I just felt the need to shake off the cruddy run right away. I didn't want to wait until today, so I didn't.

It was a short, quick run and it worked. I felt TERRIFIC! Granted, after the run I was rushed and I didn't get a chance to do anything with my annoyingly frizzy locks other than pull them back in a ponytail and I was 15 minutes late to my 7pm event. But none of that mattered, it was all OK. The best part was that I had made an opportunity to run where I hadn't thought one existed.

And today's run didn't disappoint, either. An hour before I started my run there was a crazy hard downpour for about 15 minutes. When I was running, it was sunny and muggy but not bad at all. The wild thing about my run was that when I looked at the sky just east of my house, I could see a thick patch of gray clouds, surrounded by sparkling blue, sunny skies and from that patch of gray clouds, I could see sheets of rain pouring down. It was really, really wild. Sunny, blue skies all around, except for a clump of rainy gray.

Take what you want from that: Me, running under sunny skies, after the rain had past, watching it pour down someplace else.

~ Felice

Just roll with it.

Sometimes you head out for a run and just feel like you could keep going forever. You get the whole Dean Karnazes thing (as much as one can really get such a thing); it makes sense why he would want to run and run and run some more. Then, other days, you labor through your entire planned route and want to curl up and die by the time you are done, never to run again.

But, you do. You run again and the next run is fine -- maybe even great. Who knows? It doesn't really matter because with running you learn to roll with it. You roll with the weather, roll with last minute schedule changes, roll with injuries. You roll with it, whatever it happens to be.

Like today. Today, I rolled with it.

It's a beautiful day. Sunny. Warm. Just perfect. We've had a bunch of not-so-great days so this one is quite welcome. I would relish an early summer run this evening but I have someplace to be at 7 so I decided to run on the treadmill this afternoon while my son napped.

Good plan, except that, well, . . . my run sucked. Totally cruddy. But, that's what happens. Sometimes you feel great, sometimes you feel cruddy. Tomorrow's another day. Another chance.

And, lucky for me, I have running on my schedule for tomorrow. And the next day. And, I hope, for many days, many months, many years to come!

~ Felice