Worth

Sometimes, in bed, in the morning, in the inhale of breath that meets the inhale of air as the door opens and you leave to run; sometimes in the thinking about stretching but not actually stretching, at various appointments, in numerous places, that I've asked a shallow, "What is the bigger picture?" The antithesis moment is the Sunday Long Run, through mountains, beneath trees, with silky Sunday conversations among friends, communal, where it's easier to be present, as opposed to the loneliness of individual training, and the belief you need to keepkeep going. In those non-communal moments - what constitutes the bulk of living and training - it's really easy to forget, or, rather, not give yourself enough credit for the work you're doing, you've done, you'll do. It's hard to keep each moment big-picture influenced, or trust that the big picture hasn't somehow evolved as it lurks behind the maintenance of everyday training.

A lot of how I operate is Yes-motivated. And, Relationship or People-motivated. I started running because my mother was a runner; a sub-5 minute miler who wore cotton t-shirts with felt exclamations. Before college she got into a serious car accident & never ran again. My father was an all-around athlete who focused on basketball & baseball, and continued playing into his 40's for club teams; through him I saw the culture of Team, of jest, of celebration, of attitude. In their influence I started running early, wherein falls a line of navigating social systems, what it means to be a teammate & being on a team, work ethic, what it feels like to succeed, to fail. The youth runner me saw much mud, play, hilarity, sudden mentoring, bleached hair, broken toes, school records, improvement, also that really important lesson that seniority does not always equate success; that it's more of a location and less like a podium. As I've lived, what keeps ending up as the big picture, is community.

:My high school team, how easy it was to laugh, how our coach felt like a father, decorated vans, State Champs. The WWU team, summer training camps at Fort Casey, camp labor, disco parties, Indoor, Outdoor and XC Nationals, finding great love, forever friends. My post-collegiate team, the Bellingham Distance Project, collaborating, learning & growing with female professionals who do incredible things in the PNW, and now in combo, Saucony, racing for Saucony Hurricanes, which is not only super rad, but the fact that I get to with my great friend, Ber - even better.

Last weekend Ber & I met Ash, the PNW Saucony rep at Fairhaven Runners for a Saucony Peregrine 6 demo run. Genevie had laid out a table spread of fruit, bagels, yogurt and coffee; a group of us tested the Peregrine in the 100 acre wood; afterwards a communal breakfast & giveaway. The following morning we did another demo at Klicks along South Bay Trail; had Rocket Donuts' maple-bacon bars and black coffee post.

After training for the marathon the last few years, I'm excited to put the distance on hold, train short & try to hatchet down times in the 5k - 1/2 marathon. I'm very proud and thankful to do this beside my teammates, for Saucony, in this community.