Trashed by the Trail

"Wow what a run!"

That went through my mind somewhere around 15min or a mile and a half into Sunday's run. Really it was more like, "Holy $h!t, how long is this hill" and "what have I gotten myself into?" But I ran on, slowly up the narrow, rocky path at the snail pace of 10min/miles. And while I was getting further ahead of the other runners that started w/ me, I felt slow and yet gratified, that my legs hadn't slowed to a walk, that I could maintain my heart rate and that as soon as the hill relented from a 6-8% grade to 2% it felt so so good and I could speed up and get my heart rate down in time for the next hill.
The scenery; well, I didn't realize how beautiful it was until the second lap. No my thoughts and focus were fixed on the trail, plotting out each step so as not to hit a rock sideways and hear the familiar sound of ligaments tearing in my ankle. But that second lap, as I looked North there was my baby, my lover, the mountain that, in my mind, defines what a mountain should look like, Long's Peak. I think she winked at me while domineering the mountain scape at 14,256 feet tall w/ it's majestic shear vertical face aka, The Diamond. Yes I have a long love affair w/ Long's as she has been party to a number of my climbs, some a great success and others humbling defeat. So as a ran along the trail at about mile 11 or 12 w/ 3 to 4 more to go, feeling the pain usually only reserved for a race or longer distances, I was given something to smile about. That picturesque mountain, the sun lighting up the face and highlighting the snow hanging onto it's broad shoulders eased the pain and made it all worth while.
And so what if I started on a run w/ a running group and I didn't run 1/2 a mile w/ any of them. The fact was, I knew they were there and even more importantly I wouldn't have been on that trail if not for the group's decision and committing to meet them there. The end result is that we fed off each other's energy to bust out one hell of a bad ass trail run, up and down hills on single track, rocky terrain. And the cool thing was that as I came back to the car as the last one in, having added some extra miles; there they were finishing up their stretching and giving me high-fives for the effort. I don't get many hoo-rahs and high fives when I go out running on my own.
Yes, that was cool.
Running is good.
Running w/ friends is better.