I am back in my hometown visiting my parents, and got together with some old friends. N and I belonged to the same sorority 12 years ago, and G and I worked together 7 years ago. I was interested to speak with both of them, because they both participated in the Canadian Death Race a few weeks ago.
In addition to being the president of my sorority, N was also very involved with the Students’ Union and student services at our college. I met G when I worked for The Support Network, which was somewhat affiliated with some of the college student services. I didn’t actually remember if they knew each other from those days (they didn’t).
As they shared their adventures of their run, someone brought up the fact that I didn’t run when I still lived in Edmonton. This was true; I didn’t start running until I moved to the States. But equally, I didn’t remember N being particularly active in those days, and now she is off rock climbing and running and doing Soldiers of Fitness three days a week.
It just struck me how I first met them under very different circumstances years ago, and now we can reconvene to chat about this unconventional pastime. I don’t think it was something any of us were into at that time (G may be the exception, actually, he may have been close to training for his first marathon then), yet now we can get together and talk about completely crazy subjects like hallucinations and refueling.
The call to do the Death Race next year is certainly growing louder…
As he left, G mentioned he was running the Edmonton Marathon on Sunday. So we are actually going to meet and run together! Then I asked N about this “Soldiers of Fitness” group she mentioned, and she said it was actually buddy day on Monday, so I was welcome to join. Hmmm, a “comprehensive physical fitness program that combines the expertise and benefits of one-on-one personal fitness training with the camraderie and motivation of a military atmosphere”, the day after a marathon? Sign me up!
I find it very interesting how we can travel the same roads as people, completely without knowing so. After I moved to Columbus, I didn’t speak with G for years, until we reconnected on facebook sometime last Spring. We started talking about running, and it was really great to see him and his family tonight. While the situation that caused us to first meet is gone, we now share this different interest and are therefore renewed friends.
And I just know that if we chat for 4 hours on Sunday, I will be a death racer by this time next year!
