Ran my first 10K a few weeks ago!

Wow!  10ks are fun!  We raised nearly $20K for the cause and enjoyed a great run with 200 plus people.

I was 1st overall for the woman with a 42:49 time.  First mile clocked in at 6:20 and I didn't know what to think of that.  My first mile of a 5K is usually about 5:40 so I figured that my pace was fine...but wow was I tired by mile 4!  I think I down shifted for a couple of miles to a cruising pace and then I picked it up for the last 1/2 mile to average a 6:53 mile pace.

I don't train or ever even keep track of how many miles I run.  I just run.  It's the one thing in my life I have decided not to be scientific about.  I don't want to track my runs on some GPS website and figure out my pacing.  I don't want to create interval training on the track (although, I do just for fun, sometimes go out to  a track and interval train, but this is a rare occurrence!).

I just like to don the shoes, walk out my front door, and start running.  I turn around when it feels right and I head home.  I never know how many miles I ran.

So, I really didn't anticipate that I have been running at sub-7 minute pace as I have never calculated it.  That's what I paid my entrance fee for I guess - so they can tell me how far to go, when to turn around and tell me how fast I went.

Anyway, I won a really cool handmade necklace that says "Gotta run" for being the first mom to cross the finish line (it was held the day before Mother's Day) and I won this gorgeous hand made bronze medallion medal with the mountain skyline of our area carved into the center of it for being the overall Woman's finisher. http://www.justalittlecharm.com/

that was a fun day but I happily return to my daily runs where I let my mind drift to whatever it wants to drift to.

- gotta run!

... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day (Anne Lamott)

On today's run, I began to smile as I knocked the miles down and I was reminded of my tribe.  My tribe consists of 5 families that these days don't see each other as much as we used to but nonetheless, we have basically grown up together.  We met when I had a 2 month old baby and pre-baby me was really still a kid. Motherhood was the catalyst to adulthood for me.  And these friends have weathered me trying to figure it out and still love me.  And I have weathered them working to figure it out and I still love them.  I have hurt their feelings and they have hurt mine at times, but real forgiveness is always there and we move on with our hearts open to real friendship.

Even my gmail account knows who my tribe is.  I type one name in and it has this cool new feature that suggests other names that often are emailed in conjunction with the first name - and every time when I email 1 tribe member, all 4 other families pop up as suggestions to include...and I almost always do.

We never claim to have the answers or to have arrived.  Instead we recognize that we are always on a journey working on understanding ourselves, God, parenthood, life.

I love my tribe because I have never witnessed any of us ever putting anyone down.  It's just not how we roll.  It's friendships built on the belief that none of us know what we are doing and we are OK to help each other figure things out, and change, and figure some more things out, and change again.

I love how safe it feels to have friends like this that accept and give space for me to not be perfect. 

I am sorry that this world is full of so many chatty, degrading people but thankfully, I have been able to surround myself with an amazing tribe.

Wherever you are, it is your friends who make your world.- William James