I don’t think I’ve ever shared this story before. It’s quite the confession.
Because I have so many social media platforms to run as Taylor, Kindal, and the businesses, a few years ago, Dan started helping me out with my local social medial. Well, with Twitter.
He would tweet as me and even try to network with local bloggers and fitness enthusiasts. One day he mentioned that he (meaning me) met a writer who was also a runner. She wrote for some large Charleston publications and he thought it would be beneficial for us to meet.
Still tweeting as me, he hooked us up on a blind run-date.
I had no idea what to expect, and the day before our planned run, I read over her blog (as I am sure she did too). At least I knew she was around my age, was fast has hell (her first 1/2 marathon was under 1.45) and seemed friendly considering she was up to meeting a complete stranger.
We met at Moultrie Tennis courts in Downtown Charleston and set off for a little over 7 miles. <— No I don’t have a ridiculous memory, I found this blog post of our first run (just another reason I love this blog).
By the end of our first mile, I knew we could be friends. I say could, because life gets busy and who knew if this run would turn into another. We chatted like old friends and she laughed when I explained how my husband set us up.
Lucky for me, that run turned into lots of runs, races, coffee dates, dinners, and a lifelong friendship.
Seriously if one person is responsible for my speediness, it’s this lady. She encouraged me to train harder, push away mental blocks and showed me what it was like to run with someone.
I was all about solo running before, and even if I did run with a friend there was no such thing as a structured workout.
Real fast, can I share a few memories/lessons from this chick?
- Cold is no reason to skip a run or choose a treadmill. Suck it up and put an extra layer on. I can remember several runs last year where my car read 19-degress. I would send a text asking, “are we still on? It’s pretty cold!” to which she would reply… “Yup!”. Then of course when we would get to the track, we would both confess we were secretly hoping the other person would cancel. Love accountability and our refusal to be the weak one.
- Dark running is scary whether you’re by yourself or not. Katie and I used to run before the sun came up, with headlamps on, ready to go. There were several times where we would hear subtle noises and go “did you hear that!?” Our feet picked up speed as if running faster on a track that goes round and round would save us.
- Katie is great at handling crazy dogs… me, not so much. Once when we were running from her house to the track (a bit less than a mile) a dog ran up barking. I instinctively tried to grab Katie’s arm and jump over a ditch. She stopped, pointed a finger at the dog, and yelled authoritatively, “NO!” to which the dog stuck his tail between his legs and walked away.
- Running 2 mile intervals at 7 minute miles sucks. I don’t want to share more of this story because it will forever haunt me.
- I learned I’m a fast short distance runner. We loved to talk about our strengths and weaknesses in an effort to improve. And we both agreed… put Katie and I in a race together for anything over a mile and she will kick my butt. Anything under a mile, and I’ve got it. The only problem, there aren’t any races like this! I should have done track but missed my chance. Ha.
- What happens on the roads/tracks/trails, stays on the roads/tracks/trails. This will be what I miss the most, we were able to discuss everything going on in our lives. We celebrated the good, we sympythyzed with the bad, and supported each other through the challenges. I guess the most important lesson I learned was this… A good running/workout partner makes the best of friends.. You can’t hide your true colors when you’re pushing yourself to max levels, your true self shines through bright.
Clearly, we became more than just running partners.
I can’t tell you how many miles we’ve covered or how many times we’ve texted a “good luck” text on race days.
We were nervous that when Katie had to stop running late into her pregnancy that our get togethers would stop. They never did. She’s the only friend I’ve had where we’ve consistently worked at it, meeting every two weeks for either a walk (now with the baby) or a coffee date.
What’s The Point
Katie and her husband are leaving this weekend to move to their home state of Oklahoma. This past weekend, we had our final run together. 3 months post pregnancy, her running feet are going strong again and we covered 4 awesome miles. I didn’t want those miles to end, our run to end.
You know what?
I am slightly nervous that life will get in the way. I made the joke we should get selfie sticks and FaceTime our runs! That would be hilarious. But clearly that’s not in the books. We will just have to make an effort.
No one will replace my first regular running buddy, those are some fast shoes to fill!
We’ll see.
But more than anything, I’ll just miss my friend.