Girls Weekend....

This weekend I went with seven of my girlfriends to Isle of Palms, SC for a weekend of fun in the sun.  We all went through the same training program right out of college and then got placed in various places so we do not see each other very often.  I was very excited to see everyone, but knew that my running schedule would probably suffer given the increased humidity and temperature and of course the amount of drinking and eating that would be involved.  We all got in around 10:30 Friday night and planned on staying in and catching up a bit before hitting the hay – pretty good set up for my Saturday morning run.  Flash forward to 4:45 in the morning and, after “catching up” aka drinking all night, I was just getting into bed.  Great choice…  My alarm went off at 8:30 and the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed and into my running gear.  Before I would have taken the excuse that I had a long week and I deserved some R&R, but I mustered together what little motivation I had and was out the door by 9.  Already hot and muggy as hell and I could feel every hour of sleep I missed and every beer I drank. 

I’m into making bargains with myself and the one that I made that morning was that I would not even take my watch I would just go until I couldn’t make it another step.  Granted I crawled along most of the way, but I ran for about 40ish minutes according to my iPod and mental time.  Not too shabby really given the circumstances.  In the beginning I felt awful, but then I got in my usual groove and enjoyed my surroundings.  I could smell the ocean air the whole time.  As I normally do running anywhere I looked at all the houses and picked out a couple that I would settle on for a future pad – given winning the lottery etc.  Then I ran across the bridge to Sullivan’s Island which was breathtaking – I even saw a group of dolphins.  Then I ended my run and took off my shoes to walk along the beach back to our condo.  Although it is hard to do sometimes incorporating running as I travel really has its benefits.  I was able to see the neighborhoods and scenery in a different perspective than I would have in a car.