Exercisers Anonymous

When I think about tough people I think of people like David Goggins and Jocko Willink. There is another group of people that instantly comes to mind, the exercisers anonymous group in Edmonton. They will tell you they are just getting up early to get some exercise in and hang out with friends, which they definitely are doing, but doing this so consistently in frigid Edmonton with such enthusiasm is inspiring. The best thing is their group keeps on growing. These ladies are what ÆVUM is all about. Story from Karen below.

Backstory

It all started with a 10K in May... I asked my friend Laura if she wanted to run a 10K back in January, which was cancelled, but we ran the course anyway.  That was the furthest she had ever ran and she wanted to keep increasing her distance.  So she asked if I would go running with her one morning at 5:30am, and that's how we started running once a week at 5:30am, increasing our distance every week. First week: 12K, second week 14, then 16, then 19, and by July we had run a half marathon! 

We had so much fun running together that we just kept going, but we mixed things up with hills one day, intervals one day, and long runs once a week.

Exercisers Anonymous

By September, Laura had invited Jaren to join our early morning runs, Lara invited herself, I invited Tiff and Christy, Christy invited Cherae, and Lara invited Melba.  I created a group chat (exercisers anonymous) to keep up with where and when to meet.  Now, on most mornings some or all of us get out and enjoy fresh air, exercise, and lots of socializing before our regular days even begin!