Reviving Saturday Morning Runs in Griffith Park

It's 9:00 a.m.on a beautiful Saturday morning and I already finished my 3 mile scheduled run for the day. I not only feel good, I feel like I have accomplished so much!

The smartest thing I did was reach out to my old running buddy Monse to see if she was interested in meeting me on Saturdays for a short run. She immediately agreed. We actually go way back to 2002 when we both signed up withe the LA AIDS Marathon training program that trained us to run the Honolulu marathon. We both were in the same training group "Miki Gorman" as they sorted folks by pace  groupings. We met every Saturday morning for months at Griffith Park. It was such an amazing, bonding experience the six of us who ran together kept in touch and get together on occasion over the years.  Monse and I in recent years decided to meet on Saturday mornings as we did in the past at 7 a.m  to run or just walk together to have some level of fitness in our week.  We have had many wonderful conversations along the way.

Last year we stopped our Saturday meetings as she and her hubby Mike were about to have a baby. Now that their beautiful son Matthew has arrived and they have had time to adjust, she coincidentally was looking for a fitness outlet so the Universe gave me another sign I am on the right track! She jumped at the opportunity to get back to our Griffith Park morning runs.

Today was our first run/walk session. It was fantastic because running with a partner forced me to pick up my pace and having someone to talk to, I thought less about the body aches and enjoyed the scenery and comraderie of running in a park full of weekend runners.

When I got home I immediately took Rusty for his morning walk and now I am ready to eat something.

I'm still at the early stages of my training. However, I feel my focus on taking things slowly and running no matter what, except on my scheduled rest day, is progressing nicely. Establishing a regular commitment feels like a solid base I can build on as i run on my own during the week.

Today I think I will do some nutrition research. Eventually I will need to address my nutritional needs so I help not gurt my body as I increase my exercise regime.

Slow and steady wins the race.