Social Running!

Throughout most of my 34 years of running, I ran alone. On some occasions I ran with my friend Ernie, and when he was around, I ran with my son Terrible. I always enjoyed those runs, but 95% of my miles were alone. I never raced with anyone, since my goal was always to beat everyone I could. Yes, in some races I might run along with a competitor for a while, but that was not social...it was to try and size them up for a few minutes to see if I could hurt them more, make them work too hard, or decide when to press them. Nothing warm and fuzzy in any of it. Now that I am not really competing anymore, I do enjoy running with others both in training and racing. My new friend Frank, who just got good news on a back scare, is someone I enjoyed running with when my wife and I visited Ohio this past spring. And I was also able to run a lot with Little E again. I look forward to running some races in the future, what I now term "eventing", since it is not really competitive, where I can run along with others and share a short chat. There is a social side of running that I have never really experienced until I ran 2 5k's this past spring, one each with Ernie and Frank. I keep thinking that the three of us need to do a special event in a few years to celebrate our 60th birthdays. I tried to do something similar on my 40th birthday...to try and get a few friends to run a Boston qualifying marathon. I ended up running the Atlantic City Marathon mostly by myself, although my Friend Billybob did complete the last 4 miles with me to pace me home. It helped me qualify with 10 minutes to spare. Then I did get to run about 20 miles of the 100th Boston with my boy, although that turned out to be an ugly experience for all involved. Anyway, I hope the three of us can put something together for the winter/spring of 2011! Until then, got to get this cast off and get back into shape. One more week of cast dancing to go!