I Know This Isn't Our Running Blog

I ran this morning with my training team. Last time I ran with the team I ran so slow I lost them. It wasn't a big deal because we train in my neighborhood and, let's face it, Asheville isn't a big city. I haven't gotten lost here for 8 years so I wasn't worried about getting lost on a little run. The trainer felt bad though so he beat my legs and lungs into submission with very fast a pace trained with me. First we ran much faster than I am comfortable. It was sort of like a 2 mile sprint. Then a woman, who I will refer to as M. and I got to set the pace and we ran at much much slower pace. As we were running at a pace where we could actually catch our breath at our distance pace she asked me why I was running. So I told her that my mom had died 2 years ago from leukemia. I want to raise money for something that is really important to me. We kept running and we talked about college, she was in the nursing program at a local college. We talked about running at Disney and how much fun it will be for my daughter. We talked about local politics (since we kept running by political posters in people's yards). BTW - I think Heath Shuler is going to win, based solely on people's front lawns. I know this is a pretty unscientific study. I am going to say that my research has a +- 20% error ratio.
So we had a nice run through the Grove Park area. And then we started running up this really long hill and I started feeling like Sisyphus. When we were really near the top of the unending hill that we had both been bitching about for at least 4 minutes I asked why she was running. Most of the people who run are middle class and middle aged while she was in her early 20's and a college student. She told me she survived leukemia when she was a kid.
All of a sudden the hill didn't seem so bad.

PS - Happy Jewish New Year to my Jewish Friends (and anyone else who wants to celebrate).