Dear Renee

Dear Renee,

Today Paula, Lori and I went to the gym while you were at work. We ran side by side on the treadmills, reading the closed captions of Live! With Kelly and Michael while you sat at your desk, working hard and wishing you were with us. Or maybe you're just laughing at us behind our backs while you eat popcorn with your feet up on your desk.

We thought of you often as we ran, wondering why we were here and you were not when this whole thing was your idea. We questioned why we were at the gym for the fourth day in a row, working harder than we ever did when we were running three times a week outside. We praised your ability to motivate us to be here day after day while you send us updates on your new Garmin monkey Todd and his banana addiction.

We tried to make you proud. I ran my first 5k since the stress fracture. Lori has been running 10k a day. Paula has added biking to her routine. Oh, and I can't forget the weight training.

We hope you had a good day without us and that you didn't miss us too much. We did miss you but we know that before too long you'll be back with us, running side by side, trying to get that PB for Todd and feeling like death when we're all done.

Oh, and by the way, you may not have noticed, but we have not had a post workout tea break since this whole gym thing started. That was one of the deciding factors of joining a gym. So you owe us big time.

See you in the New Year,

Your Bestest Running Gym Buddies.