There's a First Time for Everything!

For those of you that have been reading this here little blog for awhile know that once upon a time, back when I lived in Orlando, I ran quite a few training runs with the infamous Lazy Runner... For those of you that are fairly new to the Redhead Running adventures (Hi!!! Thank you so much for reading!!!) let me direct you to such classics as my first 18 miler that he convinced me to run at 10pm on a Friday night, my first 20 miler (of death), the 18 miler I wanted to kill him after, or well... there was a lot of LR adventures back in my Orlando days so you can only imagine how excited I was to receive a text from him Thursday saying he'd be in town and wanted to go for a run Saturday morning. A new chapter for the Redhead & Lazy Runner adventures?!?!? H*ll's to the yizzah!!!

Never trust a man who wants you to run under barbed wire!

So bright and early Saturday morning we met up, along with Timmy, over at the empty parking lot of the MAC to give LR a running tour of my old stomping grounds in Lansing. It was crazy windy on my drive over, we're talking 25-30 mph gusts, so I text him, "You wouldn't happen to have a wind breaking jacket would you?"

His response, "What's a jacket? (No)"

Oh my little Florida boy was in for a treat.

It was then that I realized this would be the first time LR & I would ever run together fully clothed. (Back in O-town we were generally half naked and sweating buckets!) I was actually really surprised when he showed up in running tights and a pullover fleece. So far, LR gets an "A" for layering! I however get a "F" as in FAIL, because I had forgotten Hermes! Thankfully both boys showed up rocking their Garmin's! We were in business so I put Tim in charge of mileage documentation and LR in charge of pace monitoring. It was my first time ever running with Tim and it would be his first 12 miler to date! Seems I like to break people in to new distances! (Speaking of breaking things in, I decided today would be the Cleveland Crushers first appearance on a long run too!)

The first mile out was pretty brutal, straight into that nasty wind, and LR got his first dose in years of what running in cold temps was like. He was not amused, but soon enough we were on the River Trail touring the MSU campus and shielded from the elements. As the run continued on the sun started peaking through the trees and Tim and I started remarking what a glorious morning it was. LR was STILL not quite amused. LOL!

Red & LR - (Clothed!) Together Again!
(Forgive the poor pic quality, taken with phone)

The miles ticked off quick as we caught up, swapped running stories, and tried not to slip or fall on any hazardous patches of ice and snow. We hit the halfway point just outside of Hawk Island, took some fuel, and headed back the way we came with LR snapping pics along the way like a running tourist now that the sun was up and the sky was bright. We arrived back to the cars to find the gym parking lot filled to capacity, changed into some dry clothes, (Well Tim & I did any way, being locals and knowing better, LR sat there shivering, not... whoops!) and split ways with Tim to go grab some well earned breakfast.

Thanks LR & Tim for meeting up and getting your run on with me!!! It was a perfect end to my recovery week and big thanks to LR for bringing the sun with him up from Florida!!!

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Now for those keeping tab, I mentioned a lot of firsts on this run but the most epic "first" of all was something I didn't mention: I didn't have to stop and pee the entire run!!! Yes, this is EPIC! Y'all know I have the bladder of a child and ALWAYS have to pee during runs, usually multiple times. That's twelve miles with zero pee breaks!!! Yes, it's the little things, like personal wins, that get me excited! This proves that I should be able to make it through the Martian Half in April without having to stop and maybe just maybe if I keep working on it, I could make it the full 26.2 in May too! There really is a first time for everything!!!

13 more weeks til Cleveland!!!