Last night marked our second CHicago Ultrarunner’s Group’s non-running social outing and it was awesome!  We have decided on the first Thursday of the month to get together in some central location for a little camaraderie.  Our first outing was last month at Wilde Bar, this month’s outing was at Elephant & Castle which is just around the corner from my office so it was handy for me. After an extremely tough day at the office, I was looking forward to meeting up with the CHUGs who invariably put me in a good mood.  When I got there, it took me a few minutes to shake the funk from the office but not long.  It was a big group and consisted of most of the regulars (though we were missing Gary, who got held up at work) as well as few new faces!  It was awesome to meet Brad, Jason, Keith, JimEJo, and Amanda.  Debbie came down from Kenosha - her dedication is unquestionable.  JimEJo was in from Rockford - our group continues to expand its reach.

Adrian and Jim were scheming their Badwater strategy.  I missed some of the details of the conversation but one thing I didn’t miss was the collective excitement - Jim would have left at that moment given the opportunity.  Brian and I discussed our 97% (he’s at 100% but I’m hovering at 97%) commitment to running Javelina Jundred in October.  Dominic and I discussed our summer plans and some thoughts on next year’s races.  Torey told us about how her new job is going (by the way, she loves it).  Debbie is planning to RD a race this fall in a park up near her home.

It was good to catch up with everyone and as I suspected, my mood dramatically improved over the course of the night.