Alabama Running

My daughter Andrea lives near Birmingham, Alabama, a state where 50 degrees is cold, 70 you wear a sweatshirt and 85 you might feel comfortable in shorts.
Andrea has been an on-again/off-again runner for several years and an equestrian since the teen years. A friend of hers decided it would be great if they did a Ride and Tie together. These are relay races of varying distances, one person rides the horse, ties it in the woods on the race path, and begins running. The teammate, who has been running, reaches the horse, gets on and rides, tieing it up again for the current runner. This continues for up to 50 miles.
Andrea and her teammate are new to the sport and will attempt an 8 mile race. Thus, Andrea needs to train for running again. This is the story (in her words) of her first time out;

I finally dragged myself out of the house yesterday evening for my first run since the fall. I decided to run the loop around the church and back since I knew that was one mile and I was curious how far I could go. I left the big, bad, black dog at home, worried I’d be chased by the little ankle biters down the street and not in the mood to break up a potential dog fight. Off I go, starting with a two minute walk for a warm-up, then the alarm went off for the start of my five min run. This isn’t too bad, wonder if five minutes is up yet…nope, only 40 seconds. Ok, keep going…and walk. In the middle of the second run, I reached the mile point, turned back from my house and down the loop again. This five minutes went by quickly. Walk, start my third run on the “main” road. About halfway down, I see a mean, nasty horse-fly circling my knees. Screaming and arms flailing did not phase this vicious creature. I ran faster for ten seconds, thinking I could out run it. He was persistent! Off I went in a full-blown sprint, long strides, grateful to be heading downhill. The two young boys ahead of me looked shocked when I went blowing by them, 100 mph. Oh no, now it’s uphill! As I started to slow, I glanced down. It appeared I was safe. I’m sure the boys looked like a slower, easier target. Thank you for kids! Two miles completed on my first run.


I decided to cool down with a ten minute yoga clip from yogamazing. Of course, I lay on the ground and, the dogs came running over to help (Andrea has 4 dogs). They quickly learned they were to be ignored and went back to sleep in their corners. However, unknown to me, the cat had her eye on me. As I lay in crocodile pose, she took the opportunity to run over and jump on my back. After making sure I was “comfortable”, she laid down, adding extra weight as I moved between the crocodile pose and the boat pose. I’m sure she enjoyed the rocking back and forth. As I came up off the floor to sitting poses, she climbed up to my shoulders, then leapt off as the dogs came over, thinking I must be ready to play with them. As two fight over who gets my attention first, one licking the sweat off my face, I continue to hunt for calmness, quiet and peace thru my breathing. I finally found it as the video ended and I collapsed with a sigh of relief. Day one done. 