How exercise (and kids) brought us back together!
I recently reconnected with a childhood friend. One who I have known for 20 years! You know you don’t have many of those. She recently had a baby that is close in age to my youngest and I couldn’t wait to meet the little cutie. Who knows that could be Carter’s future wife – ha ha. We had a great time catching up from the past several years and my kids loved hanging out with her two oldest kids.
I typically will update my Facebook and Twitter when I work out, and on one occasion she made a comment that she “wished she lived closer so we could run together.” She lives about 40 minutes away now but when we were younger and lived only 10 minutes away from each other, we used to go walking and running together 3 or 4 times a week.
Those were such great times. We would spend hours talking about nothing at all or sometimes really digging into each others lives. We were early twenties then and had already knew each other for 10 or so years, so it was truly a unique friendship, one that I cherished. But as most friendships do, we moved on. She moved farther away, had a growing family, I was finishing my undergrad (taking 22 credits a quarter to finish) and was a newlywed, and eventually diving all my attention into being a teacher. We were in different places in our lives and I, probably more than she, just let too much time slip by between connections.
So after she left that comment, I thought to myself, there is a local nature reserve about half way between us and I have wanted to try trail running for some time. So I suggested that we could meet there on Saturdays, and run together. It was perfect timing because she just recently had a baby and was beginning to work back up to her previous athletic ability and I am still trying to run outdoors fighting my allergy attacks, so we are about on the same level.
We had our first meet up this past Saturday. Since it was our first time doing this, we decided to focus more on finding a path for future outings and not so much on running. We talked just like old times, laughed, made jokes, talk about some serious issues. IT was just as easy Saturday as it was 10 years ago. Before we knew it, it had been an hour and we didn’t really get much running in – LOL. But still we got a look at our trails and an idea of what we need to do next time. How much fun it was and I really can’t wait until next week.
She is one of those people that when she chooses to work out, she works out hard. So even our walk, I was having a hard time keeping up. I had sore shins and muscles that proved it. I love her spunk and enthusiasm!
We gave ourselves a not-so-strict-goal of running 3 miles on this trail by September. Plus it gives me something to work on through the week.
I am still having issues with my running, but I refuse to give up. Hopefully runnig with my friend will really help me step it up a little bit. Do you have a work out buddy? If so, how does it help you keep fit and motivated I would love to hear from you!
I think I will stick to being your pool buddy.
I love the kinds of friends that when you lose touch, and get back in touch, it feels like no time at all has passed…
We walk as a family, living rural we can get up and walk on down the road challenging ourselves to get farther each time. We include picking up aluminum cans so it is a double duty jaunt. I like to go after dinner, sun is lower and it tends to be cooler, folks are considerate too as the drive on down the road. We have begun to see other walkers, some real serious ones lately too. We hope to get bikes too. Could cover more ground and getting off and on the bikes is a good exercise too.