I did it!!

First group training long run - DONE!!!! I'm totally psyched right now. This is how it all played out.....

5:00am - Got up. No paper (don't get me started) so I checked news and email online.
6:15am - Took a shower. Not sure why I did this. Struggled with what to put on and how much to put on. Finally decided that the worse thing that would happen would be I would just freeze my tail off and then know better next time. Slather on chapstick. Apparently advised to do in cold weather running. So this is NOT my OCD kicking in here....Decide also to wear my 'relentless' leukemia awareness bracelet that I had worn while my dad was fighting his leukemia. I think I'll do that every run. Will need that motivation down the road I'm sure.
7:00am - Check weather online. I had asked my friend and personal weatherman, Ron Childers, yesterday what the temp would be today at 8am. He said 32 to 34 degrees. Current temp at 7am= 31. One thousand bonus points for him. I'm thinking I will need to get a personal forecast every Friday.
7:15am - Jordan's volleyball coach calls to say today's games have been cancelled because of inclement weather and icy conditions. WHAT!?!?!
7:16am - Turn on TV. Sure enough. Inclement weather policy in effect. Oh dear.

7:30am - Leave. No ice on road. More chapstick. (OCD kicking in HERE)

7:40am - George, my coach, flies by me on Walnut Grove in his little sports car. Weather can't be too bad or he wouldn't be driving his little sports car.
7:45am - Sit in warm car as long as I can.
8:00am - Group gets together in parking lot. More chapstick. Leader tells us to "watch out for black ice on the path". ICE ON THE PATH!?!? Oh my - do I really want to do this? I signed up for some running, not an Olympic luge event. She says we will run 3 minutes and walk 2 minutes. I'm cool with this. Well really I'm just COLD period. The longer we stood there, the colder I got.
8:10am approx - Off we go. I meet Nicole & Jessica. They are also training for San Diego. We all kind of stay in a group.
At this point, I'm very unsure of the time. Passed a marker that said 1 mile. Is that all? I'm wondering if a zero had been rubbed off that sign.... Parts of the trail are covered in ice. I run in the grass part of the time. I'm alternating between walking and running. Nicole & Jessica are gone. Fine with me. Bye. George is sticking with me. I feel like I'm slowing him down. I told him he could go ahead and I'd catch up (or he could come back). He says no, he was fine. More chapstick. I trudge along. My nose was running faster than I was. But I was running. Then walking. Now it's raining or sleeting or something. But then I see it - a marker that says 2.25. Could we be approaching the end? I realize at some point that the run today will be the equivalent of a 5k. How about that?! Then, there we were back at the parking lot. There were about 20 people milling around and George says something like "And the crowd goes wild" -- so they all cheered for me and that felt nice.

There were a few people who came up that must be farther in this training process. One girl asked her coach if she "should put in a few more miles" (what a nut). She also had ICE on her forehead. I'm not kidding.

I DID IT! And on top of that, found out that it was a bit faster than I would have estimated. It was about 40 minutes total. Not bad. I'm not fast anyway. I don't want to be fast. I just want to have continuous movement.

I was back home at 9:00am. Dripping with sweat. Felt like I had been playing in the snow. Like when your body is cold, but hot - at the same time. I was really excited and anxious to share my saga with Jodi and the kids. Jodi looked the trail up on the Shelby Farms website. It looked as long as it felt.

Took a HOT HOT HOT shower. Yum. Then Jodi took us to Sonic for breakfast. I had a sausage burrito. Maybe not the healthiest option. But I was starving. And celebrating.

Progress made:
Did first group run. Three miles. Outside. In less than perfect conditions.
Have sent out many fundraising letters and received some money. Yea!

Lessons learned:
Need to stretch more before (and after!) I run.
Time and distance definitely go faster when you've got somebody to talk to.