It started a little over a week ago during youth group, when somehow a conversation with a group of my middle school girls turned to exercise and motivation. Not sure how they would react, I asked the girls if they would be interested in running with me after school a few days a week. They responded positively, but I was unsure whether they would actually follow through.
Turns out, they were actually pretty excited about running, so another teacher and I set out on Monday afternoon with three 7th and 8th grade girls. We challenged them to run two miles and they did it! Encouraged by their progress, I invited them to return on Wednesday.
You can only imagine my excitement when, on Wednesday, all three returned along with two new girls! Once again we ran them through town, covering a distance of two miles. After our run we went through stretches and rewarded ourselves with the chocolate milk that I had stashed in the staff fridge prior to heading out.
Encouraging new runners this week has been great for me, and a good reminder of how far I've come in the last few years. It's also motivated me to want to continue to improve. I'm exited to run with the girls again next week and am hoping that more girls join us!
I also did two longer runs this week, since I am still working on increasing my mileage for RnR Madrid. I explored a new set of trails with a friend today and even though we did take a few wrong turns, we found our way pretty quickly and had a great 10 km run. The only thing I didn't like about this path was the insane amount of hills. We were literally running up or down a hill for about 75% of the run ... a very small portion was actually flat ground! I guess as long as I stick with it, it will get easier each time!
This fabulous week brings my 2015 running total to 92.6 kilometers!
