This week, we bring you some of our favorite shorter stories submitted by our amazing athletes and coaches. We love the creativity, enthusiasm, and fun-loving spirit of these submissions. If you have a story to share, please e-mail Lexi@lifelongendurance.com.

Nancy Steels a Kiss

My second time running Boston I decided that if the guys have the “Wellesley Girls” they get to kiss then we gals should get the same treatment. So at Boston College I stopped and asked a young man if I could kiss him on the cheek for some mojo to finish my race. After the act I turned, tripped over the barrier and bloodied both of my knees. I finished the race and missed a PR by 8 seconds!!!! My girlfriends agree it was totally worth it and a great story to tell my grandkids some day.

Matt and Meg’s Inaugural Tiki 10k

A few years ago, my training plan suggested that I should run a 10K race to prepare for my first half marathon. I looked everywhere for a local race to run that weekend, but there were no 10K’s to be found. When Meg saw how bummed out I was, she suggested that we should make our own 10K. How hard could it be?

Step 1: Pick a Park

Step 2: Pick a food or beverage to enjoy after the race

Step 3: Go!

With that advice, the Tiki 10K was born! Meg sat in a lawn chair with official race signs while I ran around Wash Park in Denver. It was the first race that I ever won. We celebrated my victory with drinks at Adrift Tiki Bar.

Michelle, Champion in Funning

Art (my fiance) and I decided to add some creativity one day while out running in the forest. We invited a game we call FUNNING while RUNNING (yes it rhythms). This meant we each had the opportunity to mimic something we saw on the trail and whoever did the most "won", which meant endless bragging rights. Here is an example, we pass a lot of trees, so if we saw a stump we would jump on it and put our hands out like branches, stand very still and this would be called TREEEING. Other examples are BOULDERING, where you get down small in a ball like a rock next to a boulder, SLABBING which is laying out on a big rock face like a slab, LOGGING, where you lay across or parallel on the trail like a log, and COWBOY/GIRLING, where you ride a log like a cowboy or girl. 

This is a story of love since that is one of the themes! Love of running with my partner, Art and love of having fun while running! Double love = winning