Daffodils and Visitors

"Cutting slack" this week has meant more days off than this obsessive-compulsive runner, with his running log and his unrealistic plans, would like to see.  But sunshine finally made a modest appearance on Thursday afternoon, and we ran a couple of miles down here on Sassafras Gap Road where temperatures are usually at least five degrees warmer than up in Town.  But that wind was still sharp!  Eliot thought April was the cruelest month, but I would cast a vote for March; those warm days and fragrant daffodils making a sudden appearance, tempting the unwary runner out in shorts and a too-thin shirt, and then slicing him up with that sharp wind.

So it was nice to see temperatures finally rebound to 50 degrees for our Saturday morning run, and to see so many runners gathered at Founders Park, as ready as I was to recover some lost mileage.  One of our visitors was Terry, who had e-mailed me earlier in the week and said "I'm supposed to run eight miles."  I told Terry that sounded like either a training plan or a guilty conscience.  It turned out that it was a little of both, and I was also surprised that Terry was a woman.  She had undergone ACL surgery a few months ago and was training for a half marathon with her running group, although she did not actually plan to run it.  Terry turned out to be a likeable and chatty companion for me and Fred and Martha and Vicki, as most visiting runners are, and I ended up with more than seven miles in my precious running log.

It is nice that we have a presence on the internet (Terry said she had Googled "running routes in Highlands" and our website came up) and can meet up with so many visitors, many of them training for a distance race and not wanting to lose mileage while traveling, and some of them even sending back finish-line photos.  We are part of a community after all, one of the nicest things about this obsessive sport, and it never becomes more apparent than when we can offer hospitality and make a new friend.