The Women of Woodlands dressed as the characters from GLOW, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
Cheering in our friends at Lithia Loop Marathon, we made our way to Ruby's for our weekly dose of post-run life and running debriefs over burritos. We've spent a lot of time this year celebrating the small wins, turning the pain into laughter, and making future life and running plans as friends here. Toasting over beers and kombucha after long Saturday runs where some of our friends hit new milestones in speed or distance, warming up over the firepits on Thursdays post-WOW runs at Gil's while making new friends and catching up with the friends we only see once a week on these Thursdays, laughing when someone gets order #69, sharing birthday cakes and announcing pregnancies while synchronizing our Ultrasignup's to run the same races together, Ruby's is much more than burritos.
This weekend marks the end of the race season for many of us. As debriefing winded down we started talking about how we stay connected to one another, to this sport that allows us to gain energy and blow off steam while also allowing our bodies the rest and recovery we need. This is the nature of nature I guess, one season ends to make way for the next.
In Woodland's world what isn't changing is we will continue to host group runs that create space for that weekly connection all year round. What is changing is we're mixing up our weekly schedule (see below) to add a Tuesday night on Roxy run leaving Wednesday open for more of us to join the weekly Rogue Valley Runners group runs. Thursday Women of Woodlands group run will continue the same time and place, this time with the added magic of headlamps required. We'll keep rolling with once monthly long weekend morning runs and will add options for women's only and coed. And since snacks are kinda our alternative brand to running, we'll have both the Gravy Gallop and the Jingle Jolly, free holiday themed family-friendly group run/hikes with food, games, and plenty of silliness.
Next week we have a special event at Common Block Brewing in Medford called Shoes & Brews with our friends at Solomon running. Come try on and go on a test run in Solomon shoes and stay after the group run for some beers and friendship.
Here's to taking some time to congratulate your accomplishments this week.
Use the #RunWoodlands or #RunWow and share your adventures
Aid station masters Karl Wulff, Evan Schmidtke, and Hayley Schmidtke serving snacks at mile 8 of the Lithia Loop Marathon
