I am a very good girl today; and no, I've never found a dead body on a run

Before I jump in, I had to share this from Runner's World, "What I Learned About Runners As RW's Social Media Editor". I loved this!

In the grand scheme of human accomplishment, the fact that I got up at 4:30 a.m. and met my friends for our weekly 5@5 run -- which is meeting at 5 a.m. at the Lake Michigan lakefront for an easy 5-mile run -- isn't probably high on the list. But it's very high on mine. :-)

Between having my beautiful Baby C 3 1/2 months ago and still being unemployed, getting back into a regular running routine has been tough. I used to make every single Wednesday morning run back when I was working, since running time is scarce for working mamas.

But now I have more time on my hands -- you can only spend so much time each day networking and applying for jobs. So I run solo often during the day. I don't mind. I've been running long enough now that I don't need companionship or an iPod to get through a run. But companionship is nice. Meeting up with Vern and Andie this morning just made for a great, great start to the day. The conversation flowed. I like these folks a lot. And they like me. Feel-good all around.

This is geeky, but I absolutely love early morning running. I don't like the actual getting up part -- good lord, it's hard to get up that early. But once I'm up and on the lakefront? It's so quiet. I love the spot where I meet my friends. The parking lot is pretty much empty, the sky this time of year is already brightening -- at certain times of the year, I see the sun rising over the lake, breath-taking) and raccoon families scurry in the nearby trees, their eyes glowing. There aren't many runners out on the path. The ones who are are subdued, but friendly, often giving a wave or a nod of solidarity. It's like, yeah, we are part of a badass club.

I came up with two blog post ideas during my run this morning, one of which I have already forgotten. The one I remember is about runner's gaits -- my friend Andie is struggled with foot pain, so she is getting a running gait analysis this week to see how she runs. I had one of those done once and was told I run pretty funky and I needed to strengthen my core. About five bouts with physical therapy for knee pain later, ahem, they were right. *innocent whistle*.

I think I'm still on a runner's high. :-)