New Friends!

Just before my half marathon, I joined a group of runners called the Trail Hawks. It’s a huge running group made up of hundreds of residents in my town. I met several of them along my training, but I didn’t really get to know them as I did most of my training by myself. After my half marathon I stopped running because I didn’t have a training schedule to hold me accountable.  So after a week and a half of resting, I decided that I needed to try and get to know my fellow runners. I happily volunteered to run with two Trail Hawks, Heather and Shari, one hot Saturday afternoon. Heather that was running 44 miles in an event called the Brew to Brew and Shari wanted to support her by running the last 13 miles together. I didn’t know quite what I was getting myself into, but I was ready to get back out to running and to meet new people.

Shari and I met up and drove to a little town 13 miles away from the finish to join Heather in the last few legs of her race. We started running around 12:30 in the afternoon once we found Heather amongst the crowds of runners, teams and spectators. The sun was out and there was not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was in the 60’s or 70’s. It was so hot. It was also very windy, which was nice except for when you were running straight into the wind. Luckily, I remembered to put on sun screen that day.

So we started running on gravel roads for the first 8 miles of our journey together. I enjoyed listening to Heather and Shari as they talk about life, running and much more. I didn’t do much conversing since I was trying to keep up, but I probably should have done more. It was nice just bonding through running. Here we are, all complete strangers (except Heather and Shari had met before) just having life conversations like we had known each other for years. It was incredible.

 

I learned so much that day about running, especially about hydration. The heat was really taking a toll on me and I realized that my tiny hand-held water bottle wasn’t going to be enough for the distance we were going.  I also learned not to be right behind someone during allergy season. Sorry Shari, but you kept hitting me every time you did a snot rocket.

As we reached the last 5 miles of our trek together, my body wasn’t letting me keep pace with my lovely companions .I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep up with them. It was obvious after half way I shouldn’t have taken so much time off running. It’s crazy how fast you lose your ability to run long distances and your pace.  With less than 5 miles to go, I gave up trying to keep up. I walked, I struggled. I eventually ran into the finish with another person who was suffering from a leg injury. I was embarrassed, but my new friends made no mention of it. They waited for me and we hung out so Heather could get her well-deserved drinks on! I was so amazed by Heather for completing 44 miles! It was that moment that inspired me to strive to become an ultra runner. It’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s in my head now. Overall, I had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to know these two wonderful ladies that I’m looking forward to sharing many more miles with!