(some of my) Weekend adventures

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than I do on work days- and happily!!

One of my trail runner partner in crimes, stopped by to pick me up shortly before 7 am to make our way to Boiling Springs to meet up with Appalachian Running Company for their trail run. I have been trying to make it out to more of these runs while my mileage is lower to keep my "trail legs" as they say. Really glad I have been doing this since my 50k since I have added something to my plans for the end of the year (more on that later).

It has been fun to join this group on a few runs and meet some new faces and enjoy a change of pace with the trails and beautiful views.

Here's the crew!!

We were greeted by some really cool fog on the Children's lake in town and I quickly jogged across the road to get some photos (of course!).

Views I don't get to see on my regular day to day. So refreshing and wonderful to soak up the last of the beautiful colors of fall here in south central Pennsylvania.

But wait!! There's more.

Trail partners at the top of the climb!

This picture doesn't even it do it justice.

We got a nice 6 miles in on the trail and we were ready for some breakfast!! We grabbed coffee and carbs at the near by cafe and headed home. 

On to Sunday!!  I got up even earlier- at the bright time of 5am to get myself ready and get to Hershey by 6am for the fall Capital Area Girls on the Run 5k. This is my fourth season on the planning committee and even though it means early mornings on race day, I am always happy to do it!!  We got all the bins unloaded for each of the "Friends and Family" zone areas as well as the registration and other check in areas first and then we all spread out to set up our individual areas before the girls and their families arrived.

The pitch black when we first arrived.

We got all set up and watched everyone start rolling in.

Each school team has their own table where all the girls meet for their race bibs and their running buddies (people they can choose to run the race with them.) They have recently added a middle school program "Heart and Sole," which I think is so awesome and important with all the life changes at that time.

My happy hair station!! Always so fun to add color and spunk to each girl's hair pre-race. For some reason, blue seemed to be the popular choice this season.  Our hands were cold, our hair aprons and spray cans were constantly blowing away, but we definitely had a great crew this time around. 

(both Spirit runner photos borrowed from a friend ;))

This year we changed it up a little and added super cool new tradition called "Spirit Runners." This was a group of runners (most of who I think I recruited from our local River Runners group..LOVE!!) that kind of floated all over the course to cheer on and encourage the girls. I heard great feedback about how fun this responsibility was and I am so glad. Not all of them are pictured here, but I hope they all had a great time.

After the girls headed to the warm-up and announcements pre-race, I relocated to the info booth to relieve another volunteer. It definitely got even colder as the morning went on and the girls and their families did not stick around long like they do sometimes. 

We got cleaned up and that was that. We pretty much ran to our cars since we could not wait to get in the warmth again. Oh, and get home for a hot shower and a nap.

In all seriousness, I love this organization and was so glad that this 5k was on my weekend "to-do" list. To be honest, my to-do list was really not a chore this weekend and I am so glad for things in my life that allow me to step away from all the madness of every day life and the online world to enjoy and appreciate even the smallest things. 

So I ask you--- how did you spend your weekend?? 

I really hope it was filled with lifting people up, being kind, and witnessing some awesome humans doing awesome things. Otherwise, you might be doing it wrong.