Those speedy =PR= ladies

Thursday night -- time for another =PR= run. I originally started attending these runs last fall with the goal of using them as speedworkouts. But the last few months I've spent more and more of my time at the back of the pack, either playing sweeper for new/slower runners or just being the slowest one out there myself.

Last night I knew Heather was coming as usual, and my friend Erin said she was going to join us for the first time. Heather's a Boston finisher, and I know is usually holding back to run with me. And Erin is super speedy (just PR'd a 24min 5k this week). It's been a crazy week with work and Girls on the Run, so mentally I was going into the workout saying to myself that today was going to be the day that I just hung on to Erin and Heather and got some real work in without focusing on the girls bringing up the rear.

Erin ended up not showing, and it was rainy and 60 degrees (hel-LO, it's JUNE!) but I remained positive that this could be a good tough day for me. I had forgotten, but it was also the first run of the month, which means that the local Luna Chix team was out in force supporting the run. This is a really cool group of women triathletes who are part of a nationwide network of amateur and pro Luna-supported athletes raising money for the Breast Cancer Fund. Anyway, Laura is one of the awesome women who is a regular at =PR= and I think was the one who started the relationship between the store and Team Luna Chix. She's the mother of a couple of boys, and has so much positive energy and just loves being out there being social and active. So as the run starts off, I get separated from Heather and start chatting with Laura. Before I know it, Heather's long gone with the front runners, but Laura is hanging with me at her "go easy" pace and my "race until I puke pace".

It was tough, but awesome. We got two quick little breaks at traffic lights totaling less than 90seconds and managed to crank out 4.5miles in 42minutes (43 with those stops). It's been a long time since I was fighting off puking at the end of a workout and I loved it. Many thanks to Laura for helping me push my limits and come off a long day feeling a teeny bit stronger.