First Day back with TNT

Saturday, February, 6

It was cold. REALLY cold. I thought I had officially lost my mind. I was nervous about joining TNT again and doing the fundraising but this bitter wind coming off the Fountain Lake pond really had me second guessing my decision to do this. The air was unforgiving and there was no where to hide. I just wanted to get start just to get warmed up. So much for a lovely run through the snow, it was just too cold. I should have done the mileage on the treadmill at Burkwood.

It was nice meeting new people and just being a participant with TNT. For so many years, I was mentor, recruiter, coach and now here I was Lelia the participant. I was worried when people started introducing themselves -they were all really fast runners. And I am a really slow slogger. Fortunately, Art, a patient honoree and current participant, was in the same boat as I so we paired up and headed out. Only 4 miles were scheduled for the day. Easy stuff. Or so I thought.

Easy stuff until we hit Floyd Avenue which still had snow and ice on the ground. Sometimes we jigged when we should have jagged and sped up when we should have slowed down and I thought at one point my lungs were going to explode because it had been so long since I had run outside. But we were just happy to be outside and not couped up inside because of another Richmond snowstorm. It was nice to be talking to a live person while doing this miles. Art was able to make the time pass quickly. Usually, I am mentally trying to calculate the minutes I've been out by how many songs I've listened to on iPod.

We somehow made it back to the park - oh, I remember, we made it back so fast because we were talking about the Food and Wine Festival at Disney and I got so excited talking about that event, that we picked speed. Food, wine, Florida. Ah, I can almost feel my fingers just thinking about it.

So far, I have reached 8% of my fundraising goal of $3000. I can't wait until I reach 100%, that will be a great day!