It’s 6:24 am and my brain is scattered. I’m half concentrating on making sure 5:30ers take their grassroots gear with them and half of me is trying to remember the names of the newbies who just showed up. I’m humming my bounce to myself and wondering if I should drink more water before running the PR Day course. Plans for the rest of the week are seeping into my thoughts as well. I glance down nervously at my feet and remember I’m running a marathon this weekend. Woooooof.
Someone’s calling my name. I turn around and see Dustin, grinning from ear-to-ear, sweaty from his 5:30 go at PR Day. “Maggie! I finished the whole course for the first time and I ran the whole way!!! For the first time!!!”
(This is the only photo I could find of Dustin on all of FB)
PAY-FUCKING-DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything else flies out of my head while I grab Dustin in a hug. Oh right – this is why that 4:30 alarm is worth it, every. single. time. Because Dustin ran a brutal 5k that included steep trails and I wouldn’t trade any amount of sleep to miss that moment, and clearly neither would you guys because you all showed up this morning to crush it together, as a tribe.
I’m a competitive woman, so it’s easy for me to get caught up in my own times to a point where it’s like “girl, you need to chill.” This weekend I ran the North Face Endurance Challenge in Utah with 18 other crazies from our tribe. It was the same course I had run two years ago, and I was trying so hard to push my old time out of my head. As I started grinding up the course I was kind of having a great time; I mean, I was happy to be running, and the view was beautiful, but then I heard Maximillian just ahead of me really having a great time. For the remaining 5 miles we were in earshot of each other and he cheered for every single person every time he saw them. So that means every time Camila came around a switchback just uphill from us (and there were roughly 50,000 switchbacks), Max yelled “GO CAMILA!!!!!!!” and Camila would holler back and I was so grateful for both of them that when the trail suddenly got steeper and Max yelled, “FFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!” all I could do was laugh and feel incredibly happy and that made me want to push harder.
I’m not saying to forget about times and give up the healthy pressure we put on ourselves to achieve our goals. But energy to achieve the awesome physical challenges we NPers are constantly tackling does not come purely from sleep, and eating well, and getting fit (these things are important though – do them). Focusing on things that make us happy is a great source of energy too. The best race advice I ever got was from Vanessa, who told me to focus on a different member of the tribe for every mile I was running during my first half marathon. Give it a try – I bet you’ll run faster than if you’re constantly glancing down at your watch worrying about pace.
Anyway, I thought about Dustin the whole time I was running today and I PRed, so that’s my testimonial.
Love you fools. DO GOOD, LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEWS
FREE SWEETGREEN
- If you PR, you get free Sweetgreen. It’s as simple as that
- Use this PR doc to keep track of your times from month to month
- Thank Sweetgreen and #recruit when you go get your salad!
FRIDAY
- Chinatown, 5:27/6:27 am
- Check out that tracker!
BEACHTOBER
- Every Friday in October we will be having a BEACH PARTY at 5:27/6:27 am!!!!!
- GET. HYPED.
BUFFS
- October 14th is the deadline to order the newest edition of #NPBuffs.
- No idea what the design is, but it’ll be awesome!
- Fill this out!
ECSCA
- November 18 in San Fran
- #NFECSCA aka North Face Endurance Challenge Series California. This is always an awesome time. This is part of the race series that Summit is always a part of. Consider this to be like a mini-NP Summit. Marathon relay is the most popular choice and you can race it with 3 other friends. Check it out, get a crew together, and sign up!
- Use code NPLAX for 15% off registration fee.
- Place to enter the code is a little weird, so if you can’t find it then reach out and we can explain it!
