This morning there was a very large group of runners, who are training for a local marathon/1/2 marathon and today they were running the marathon course which is two 13.1 mile loops. The group was meeting at 6:30 a.m. and some were doing the entire 13.1 mile loop (the marathoners) and some were doing an 8 mile loop (the half marathoners). We decided to park about 3 miles away and run to where the group was starting, run the 13.1 mile loop with them, then run back the 3 miles to our car and then add another mile to run a total of 20 miles in all. The Running Nazi and I are training for a later marathon than this one so we needed the 20 miler. Their marathon is in two weeks so this group was tapering.
Initially, The Running Nazi and I were going to park where the training group was meeting and start with them to do the loop and then add on later. Yesterday, I receive a text from the Nazi saying that there was a "large" group of runners doing 20 miles and they were meeting down the road at some mysterious church, the place changed twice before it was decided. I had my suspicions. Was this just another ploy of The Nazi to get me out a little further away from the group so if I changed my mind and got to my car I wouldn't be able to just quit at 13 miles and head home for coffee and a biscuit? I would have to actually run the extra miles to the car at this church where the "large" group of 20 mile runners were supposedly meeting instead. Also, this was 5:30 in the morning and it was still dark and we were meeting in an area that I feel isn't the safest. It's kind of creepy when it's dark, but it's near Ms. Harry's apartment and I also think that she prefers to run from her apartment rather than drive somewhere. Besides, she and the Nazi love running from there think the area is safe and that I'm just being a paranoid baby.
The Nazi already knows I don't care to run in this area of town alone, early in the morning, when it's still dark or with just the 3 of us women running alone, in the dark, at an ungodly hour. Did I say it was dark? I didn't like parking my car there and leaving it either. Before I could even protest the place or the hour, The Nazi offered to pick me up and drive me to the meeting place and assured me that there was going to be a lot of people at this church to run with us. I asked her how many people, who they were, names, addresses, social security numbers (just joking on the last three). She didn't know, but Ms. Harry assured her that there was going to be A LOT of people.
I reluctantly agreed, but had serious doubts about it all.
The Nazi picked me up and we headed to the church to meet the large 20 miler group near Ms. Harry's place. We get there, it's pitch black, the place looks deserted, no runners at the church. Surprise! We park and see Ms. Harry running toward us. She tells us to come on and we'll just keep running on by the church if we don't see anybody there. NOBODY was there. It was dark, it was creepy. We had 3 miles to run, in the dark, all alone, to get to where the real large group of runners were beginning. I'm looking around for thugs, crazy people, rabid dogs, who knows what could be out there in the dark around the corner to grab us.
It's barely 6 a.m and I am out of my cozy bed where I would've been snuggling next to Ken with little Cadence curled up next to me, purring and instead I am in the freezing cold, dark, scary streets running with a Running Nazi and Ms. Harry Potter, who I am starting to suspect to be two crazy nut cases. These crazies were running and chit chatting like they were having the best time, catching up, girl talk and I'm looking around, thinking we were going to get mugged any minute, even though all I had on me was some chap stick and a couple GU.
When we finally got to the place where the REAL large group was starting, I was extremely happy. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was. Civilization! I told The Running Nazi I was going to blog bad things about her. Not to mention the fact that she kept trying to add more miles to our 20 miler. I was keeping count of the mileage though. If not we would've run 24 or 25 miles today. She said she really, really, really didn't know that nobody would show up for the 20 miler. That Ms. Harry had told her there was going to be people running with us. A LOT of them. I have my doubts. Now I think The Nazi and Ms. Harry have a conspiracy going to get me up to run at ungodly hours just to scare the shit out of me. I'm onto them now.
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