Hippies

Last week was kind of insane. We have a sale after every Olympics to get rid of all the extra gear we end up when the Games are over and we invite all the athletes, USOC employees and staff from the local National Governing Bodies. Needless to say, it's a giant event and guess who had the pleasure of running the thing?

I was tired yesterday. I slept for about ten hours which was really nice, got a haircut, helped my friend Heather move and did a visit for church. But I felt guilty all day that although I had been running around like crazy all week, I hadn't really done any kind of good exercise in six days and for sure hadn't done anything active that I enjoyed. So when my friend Tom mentioned while we were lifting boxes out of a U-Haul that he was going to do the incline that night with some people, I invited myself along.

Turns out Tom and his three friends were in outstanding shape and I probably had no business trying to keep up with them, but there I was and I certainly wasn't going to complain or lag behind. I ended up shaving about five minutes off my usual time which felt good mentally but made me feel like my heart, lungs and maybe even kidney were going to explode at the top. By the time we got up it was already dark which meant we ran down the trail by moonlight. Aside from the risk of tripping on a tree branch or rock you absolutely cannot see, running downhill at night is every bit of thrilling. We got down to the bottom and decided that even though we were sweaty and smelly, we should reward ourselves with a really great dinner. We sat outside and ate delicious things and talked about all sorts of things. I love meeting people who go from being strangers to friends almost instantly and that's exactly what happened last night. After dinner we decided we weren't ready for the evening to end so we slipped over to the playground next to the restaurant and played on the swings, hung on the monkey bars, climbed a tree and went down the slide. At about 11, totally worn out and doing a little stretching on the grass, a group of scruffy hippie looking kids approached us and asked if we were doing yoga. We said not really but we can! So we formed a big circle and started a late night yoga flash mob. It was a perfect way to end such an organically fun night.

Summer, can't you stay forever?