Heat, Humidity, and Hannah

Picture this: Lush, green grass tall enough to brush the backs of your knees, a blue canopy of sky with a few pillow-y clouds, the perfume of wildflowers thick enough to tickle the back of your throat. Sounds perfect, right? Ha, I wish. 

Now, just add 85 degrees, 95% humidity, and 7 half mile repeats and there you have it: a typical cross country workout day. 

The girls team had an unexpected afternoon practice after lightening streaked through the sky at the original practice time of 6:15 AM. As my roommate and I walked to the HPER center at 4 o' clock for round 2, the skies opened up yet again. Secretly, I was kind of hoping for a random lightening strike to send me to bed for an afternoon nap. 

However, as typically happens with Ohio weather, the storm came and went in a matter of fifteen minutes. And so, off to Ferncliff cemetery we went.  Trying to keep an open mind and positive attitude, we embarked on our journey of repeat after repeat; each repeat bringing heavier legs, more blisters, depleted lungs and a desperate hope that it was the last. 

The only thing keeping us going was one another; the girls in "equal fitness groups" are like each other's safety nets: dragging one another along when we need an extra push and reeling each other in when the other gets a little too far out of reach. For this workout, my main safety net was my teammate, Hannah, and man, would I need her.

First repeat: breathing ragged but OK. Stay up with Hannah. Third repeat: Sweat stinging eyes. Losing Hannah, crap. Fourth repeat: need inhaler. Sixth repeat: Just keep slogging through. You can do it. Catch Hannah up ahead. Seventh repeat: You've got this. You and Hannah both. Finally, done.

In the end, I am overflowing with pride for myself, yes, for finishing yet another brutal cross country workout, but more importantly for my team. We ran together. We sweat together. We even bled together (yes, blood blisters are a real thing). And I am a firm believer that teams that run, sweat, and bleed together, stay together.