I apologize for not having written anything since Monday night. A good friend of mine got married in San Diego–I am from Pennsylvania. So for me, this was to be a full fledged vacation, and true vacations can not be had sitting with laptops. I was actually, and still am, sick of sitting on my computer–I don’t want to blog about the NYC Half, I don’t feel like covering race results right now. I just want to write about what’s on my mind.
San Diego was amazing. It was a wonderful reprieve to be away from my monotonous routine at home. Sure, I was short on mileage for the week, stayed up later than usual, ate worse than usual, drank more than usual, and didn’t even run yesterday (I started my journey out of San Diego at 10:00am and didn’t get home until 10:00pm). However, the change in pace refreshed me and I rolled my 19 mile long run today with 10 miles at marathon pace. This isn’t important.
This is the new perspective. I love running: running sets me free, empowers me, makes me feel like I can take on a car, allows me to get fresh air, lets me explore, keeps me healthy mentally and physically, gives me goals to shoot for, and most importantly brought the best people I have ever met into my life. It is unequivocal. Runners are my kindred.
My college teammates are my best friends. The problem, however, is we have all graduated and live all over the United States–including my girlfriend who lives half way across the country. Therefore, I do not often see my best friends. Yet, running always remains no matter where I am or what I am doing in life. In college, our coach told us to stay off LetsRun and other websites. I faithfully listened and was blissfully ignorant of the running scene for four years. I didn’t need the running scene online–I had teammates I ate with, lived with, trained with, fought with, partied with, raced with, celebrated with, mourned with, and loved.
Fast forward one year. I am in graduate school and am completely unable to find friendship like the ones I have experienced with my teammates. I run; I always run. My mileage increased. My online exploration of running websites increased. I temporarily exchanged the friends who are across the country for the LetsRun message boards, FloTrack webcasts, and all the other great stuff out there. This summer has been even worse. I don’t even have a T.A. position or course work to keep me busy.
The best parts of my summer are when I am too busy to check all the running crap. The best parts of my summer are when trips are made and I visit former teammates. We are growing up. Many are married. One couple has a beautiful two year old daughter. It is absolutely wonderful to see the transformations that are occurring as we grow up. Yet, when we get back together the most natural thing to do is to run together before anything else that occurs. Hell, I did a 10 miler with the groom and best man the morning of the wedding, then hit the beach, and finally we got burgers afterwards.
I joke with former teammates that I do not know how to truly get to know someone unless I can train with them. I realize now that it is not a joke.
The American Distance Project 