Running with Old Friends

The howling storm finally subsided overnight, but not before intensifying during the afternoon.  I went out to have a quick workout at the gym here and to stock up on Super Bowl food, and the car was literally shaking from side to side while still sitting under cover of the condos here, as if it were already in motion and speeding down a bumpy, unpaved road.  And the ride across the high Atlantic Beach bridge to Morehead City was a little scary; it felt as if I were continually being shoved into the oncoming lane, and our Honda CRV is not a light vehicle.

Overnight the rain stopped, but the wind kept blowing into the early hours so that it dried up all the deep puddles; the parking lot was perfectly dry, and the walkway to the dune-top deck as well, which was remarkable considering all the rain that had fallen.  Perhaps horizontal rain merely blows away into the ocean!  It seemed as if the palm trees around the pool were missing some fronds, but they were nowhere to be seen - likely blown far out to sea.  The sky, too, had been swept clear of any trace of clouds, and it was that deep cerulean blue so common out here after a front passes through.

Our old friend Dixie Stewart (I mean old in that we have known her a long time, for she is younger than I am by far) lives out here with her husband Dr. Richard Stewart, and today we met up for a 4-mile training run.  Once a member of Highlands Roadrunners Club, always a member!  We have kept up with Dixie's exploits on Facebook - she seems to be trying to run half-marathons in every state these days - and she is still in great shape.  I struggled to keep up with her and Martha as we ran along Ocean Ridge Drive, a long, quiet street one-block back from the ocean.  It is always wonderful to run with old friends again, talk about what they have been doing, ask about what is coming up - the life of a runner! - staying fit and strong and (as Dixie told me) just keeping moving.