Running with the Stars

A bonus to working from home on Fridays: when a message goes out on Facebook among some running groups in which you and friends are involved about a late morning Friday run with a celebrity, you have the option to rearrange your day around that run.

I heard that Dean Karnazes was going to be in town last week, so last Friday, that's what I did! 

There was a group photo, then a group run from the big sports arena basically up to my house, then back, and then he was doing a TV clip, then the whole group was going out to lunch.  I knew that wasn't going to work for me because it was going to take up the whole morning and I'm already pretty swamped at work.  Instead I decided I'd skip the picture and the run toward my house.  I got a friend who was doing it all to text me when they started running, then I just went to meet them near my house.  We all stood around at the water stop by my house, then I ran with Dean and the local running group back to the big sports arena, then I headed home.  It was really raining, so after a mile or so, I called hubby to come pick me up.  I was back at work less than an hour later, and because I was working from home, no hurry to change out of my sweaty running clothes!

Here are some photos from the day. 

Dean in motion (my favorite pic):

Standing around at the water stop on the trail.

Another group motion shot -- he runs really fast!  While I was running with him and talking to him, we were going sub-8s and he was breathing easy, barely sweating, and answering all kinds of questions and talking to people.  Crazy!

Not sure what he was talking about here.

Dean in Dallas:

I still don't know how to add pics from my cell phone and have them go in order, but this one should have been first -- the scene on the trail as I was running up to meet the group.  Not a typical sight for a Friday morning around 10:00. 

I was surprised by the response.  Lots of people decided to take the day off so that they could run with Dean.  And I'm sure lots of people did what I did -- rearranged the day so they could run in the late morning, and then get back to work. 

It was a neat opportunity.  One of the most memorable things he said was that when he's running a long distance, he doesn't think about how far he has to go.  He doesn't think about running the mile he's in (that's common advice given to marathoners, I also hate that idea).  He doesn't think about getting up the hill or to the next landmark.  He thinks about the very next footfall, telling himself it will be the best of the day.  Then he goes on to thinking about the next footfall. 

Wow!