adidas adios - one of her favourite racing shoes
I often run alone. I used to run more with my running groups, but with my new schedule and the odd hours I run, I’m usually on my own. The groups still meet regularly however one individual, who was a regular (if there was anyone you could count on to show up, it’d be her) – she’s not there anymore. Now I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time running with her and the group… I will miss her. She is a great example of someone who is driven to succeed in all aspects of life and one large part of her life is running. That means she lives, eats, sleeps and breathes running. Her enthusiasm successfully rubbed off on me – I now live, eat, sleep and breathe running!
She’s fast. I met her on a Saturday two years ago when I was trying to keep up with the fast group. We started chatting and realized we were both from back east and thought we knew the same person (although they turned out to be two different people with the same name)! It took me a week to recover from that way too fast long run and we rarely ever ran side by side again because her easy pace is about a minute faster than my easy pace. However, we’d always chat before and after the runs. In the warmer months, we’d hike grouse grind together. Last year she persuaded me to join her gym and we ended up regularly working out together.
Two years passed us by in the blink of an eye. She left this week to move back east. Piles of running magazines lie stacked on my floor around me – two years worth of running information that wasn’t worth packing up yet too valuable to toss. I think of her drive and passion for running as I read each word. It hasn’t really sunk in that she’s gone, but I know it will when she doesn’t pick me up for our morning gym workout, when she’s not at Saturday’s clinic, when she doesn’t facebook message me to ask if I’ll be out for coffee after the run.
good-bye present - adidas adios
It’s harder to be the one left behind than the one that’s embarking on the new adventure. But she inspired me to grow as a runner and therefore as a person. If there’s a reason for everything in life, I can see this alone as being the reason our paths crossed. And so we move onward and forward with many hopes and dreams for the future, and a vague promise of seeing each other again one day. Adios…
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.” —Flavia Weedn
RunFasterSarah (my running adventures) 