Lisa is great! She gives me Chocolate Cake!

The Running Divas (l-r Kathy, Lisa, Abby, me, Peg and Sara. Missing Danielle!)

I run with this amazing group of ladies called the "Running Divas". Our group was first coined "Sara's Running Group" (so totally unoriginal) by me when we had to mark our cooler full of water at various spots around DeWitt. Thankfully Lisa renamed us the Running Divas...much more colorful! We started running this summer together, after completing our first triathlon. We made a common goal to run a half marathon together in September 2009 and decided to do all of our long runs together. Every Friday we will hole the kids up with a babysitter and trudge out in the early morning summer heat for 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 miles. Those babysitters made out like bandits! $5 per kid and between us we had at least 7 kids there. We completed our 1/2 marathon in September and continued to do our winter training together...did I mention we are also YMCA junkies???

Post Race Divas (l-r: Sara, me, Lisa, Peg and a little friend underneath)

The Running Divas are still out there running...except this time we are bundled in our Smartwool and wind jackets (and Peg with her multiple pair of gloves on). Today 2 of the Divas and I went out for an 8 mile run. Mind you, I have not done that kind of distance since Xmas break and have not really run outside much since. And had a stomach flu last week. Excuses, excuses. But, since I bailed out on them last week (hey, i had a sick kid and i was mildly hungover) I reluctantly went out today, with all of their encouragement. The first 4 miles were rough...cold, wind in the face, panting. After a water break and some sport beans (gotta love that "bean high" as Abby calls it), I got my running legs back and pressed on for another 4.
Do you know what a group of women talks about for 1 hour and 16 minutes in the freezing ass cold? FOOD. Peg's cream puffs, some chocolate sauce, grilled salmon, little ceasar's breadsticks, Lisa's chocolate cake, etc. etc. We may bitch about our spouses (sorry babe), fret about our kids, go over our social calendars for the weekend...but it all comes back to food.

My question is...does running 8 miles today make up for the fact that following the run I scarfed down a Bigby Mocha Mocha (Skinny Skinny thank you), a large slice of Lisa's Chocolate Cake, Tacos, Tacos, Tacos, and picked at my husband's slice of Lisa's Chocolate Cake?

I think so :o)