What are we? We are AWESOME!

Me on the right rocking my blue Hyannis
Marathon fleece at Monday's workout

Today marks one full cycle of workouts with November Project.  Friday I got one hill in, Monday was a Destination Deck and today was 6 flights at Harvard Stadium in the early morning darkness.

But yesterday I found myself trying to describe the group (yet again) to  someone.  We're not a running club, I belong to one of those and this is certainly not that.  We're not a boot camp, even though we do a boot camp style workout once a week.  The word I kept using over and over again to describe the group was "awesome."

Where else can you get the love and support and encouragement people like me get from hardcore folks like the core of the group?  I keep thinking back to that chippie in the locker room at the gym years ago who thought I should be embarrassed to be seen in a gym because I was too old and fat.

Those words ring in my ears when I least expect it.  I went to my first Harvard Stadium workout with trepidation and fear.  I knew I couldn't keep up with guys who could handily win the Big Man race (run a mile to a bar, chug a beer and eat a hot dog, repeat three more times) and were active rowers.  But they welcomed me, and others like me.  I can't run the Frogman 1 workout, I'm physically unable to do so but instead of chiding me for it, Brogan challenges me to do more than I think.

With that in mind, this morning I looked at that 6th flight knowing my asthma has been acting up (an unfortunate side effect of ibuprofen to control the inflammation in my heel) and made myself start up the stairs.  Yes I had to sit down at one point on the way down to use my inhaler.  Yes I finished it and yes I got myself together to head out to school on time.  But I know part of why I did it was because I know there are folks there that encourage and help me believe in myself.

So yes, the perfect word to describe this crazy group of fun I attend: awesome... because they are and they help me find the awesome in me.