WEEK 10/17 HM Training - Run#2 Recovery 6.5K

Another great running experience today - I'm enjoying this recent roll. :)

Early this morning, it was grey, windy, and little bit rainy. Perfect for a run. I almost always exercise my option to take rest days, but given the super running weather, I could not resist. :)

My run was terrific, but not because of the run itself. I was 3.5K into my run when I bumped into Sara, my running mentor. I have referred to her several times on this blog, and my chat with her and her running partner, Joyce, made my day. :)

Usually when I see Sara out on the TVP running this summer, we wave to each other and call out enthusiastic hello!'s, but we keep running because she is in the middle of a group run. Today, when I greeted her and Joyce, they came to a full stop so I took it as a sign that they had time for a quick visit. The first thing I asked her was if she was running the Springbank Half Marathon again this year (she is). And I laughed when she declared right away, "You must be, too! Because I see you running all the time - it's obvious you are training for something!"

I was so pleased to see her because it gave me an opportunity again to thank her profusely for the positive impact she has continued to have on me and my running. Sara was the one who ran with me every Saturday when I joined the 10K running club. I was significantly slower than the rest, but she ran with me so I would not be alone. We talked about it again today; I was able to sing her praises to her friend about how much it meant to me that Sara did this for me. Sara said how important it was to her because when she started running, she had no one to run with (she is the one who started running all the races just to meet others and enjoy the feeling of running with others, like me). She is a wonderful, positive person. Her running goal is to be running still in her 80's. :) Sara is also the one who told me once about crossing the finish line at a marathon while the organizers were taking everything down! She was dead last, but her attitude was, well, someone has to be last so why not me? I was able to tell her today about the positive impact this has had on me ever since, about the times whenever I am near last place in one of the Runpiker Series races, that I think of her attitude and this invaluable lesson she passed on to me. :) Sara also ran in the infamous 2007 Chicago Marathon and has stories about citizens running their hoses out to the road to help marathoners and how she ran off the route to go to a store to buy water so she could keep heading to the finish line. :( Crazy!

I know from personal experience how much it means to me to have a student or client come back to me at a later date to thank me for my mentorship and relay how much it has meant to them; I could see how much it meant to her for me to acknowledge her again two years later. This is why it was so important to me today, when we were able to take the time to stop and catch up, to ensure she realized what she has done for me. :)

What makes this encounter doubly meaningful is that I "ran" into Gerda, my other running mentor, yesterday when running to my hill. :) I meant to write about it in yesterday's post, but clearly I am meant to write about it today rather than yesterday. :) What are the odds of me bumping into the two people who positively supported me years ago when I was transitioning from running a couple of 5K races to running my very first 10K race in 2009? Gerda was my dog park buddy and when we chatted about my beginner level running, she loved to ask me about it and always wanted to discuss where I was at with it. It was a year later when I came across a photo of her online running in the Boston Marathon (!?!?) (2X) that I learned what a seriously great runner she was! This is the kind of person she is. :) She has always been so supportive and enthusiastic to me. :) What are the odds of me encountering both of them when I was out on my morning runs this week? And on back-to-back days? It was sweet to be able to tell both of them about running a half marathons at Springbank and at Niagara Falls, and to see how they were just as excited about me doing this. :) Very, very, very cool. :)

Kundalini Yoga tonight and a 40 minute tempo run in the morning. :)