Choose Strong
For Tim.
I woke up early and decided to surprise my meetup group. I
hadn't seen them for three years and had no idea who I was
going to meet. Cars were coming into the free small road-side
parking lot to the Coyote Hills. But no familiar faces showed
up until 6:10am.
It was great to see Ed, M, Karl and Ellen. They hadn't
changed a bit. M, the PE teacher, gave birth to a baby and
she claimed that was why she couldn't remember me. I
recognized Chris from the potluck party at Karl and Ellen's
house years back. Sundeep was new and he led a "Yoga for
Runners" meetup for the group. Three girls were new and I
forgot two names. One was going to run a marathon in
Montreal, another was from Vancouver, and the third one,
Martha, joined us for the first time.
"Are they inspired by Born To Run?" the Vancouver girl
asked, pointing to my sandals. She must be in her late 20s
and looked the runner-type. "Yes. That's part of the story."
I smiled back.
They didn't expect to see me and I told them I had a race
next week and needed to shape up. They still liked me.
We headed for the hills and I chose to stick with Karl, the
oldest, and we ran about 40 yards behind M, Ellen, and
Martha. Karl used to be one of the fastest but he had
allergy for a while which affected his breathing. We stayed
at the back of the pack and had a great time chatting. He
filled me in with things that happened over the years. One
of his daughters from Colorado moved in with them. The house
was big enough and they got to live with their grand-kid. I
told him three-generations-under-one-roof was my tribe's
tradition. I told him about my getting into JiuJitsu and my
ultra-runner friend and he was amazed at the distances of L's races.
At the north edge of the hills and two miles into the run,
we met again to splitted into two groups: one went for the
levee, and the other Dumbarton.
Close to the camp site, we saw about a dozen Chinese runners.
They banded together and proceeded like a Roman legion.
They must be from the BURN running club. We waved at and
greeted each other. It was great to see my countrymen/women
shaping up against the couch-potato culture. Many good
things could come out of this.
At mile four, I said goodbye to M, Ellen, Karl and Martha,
crossed the toll plaza, and did the loop around Don Edwards.
The trail was easy but one segment was paved with sharp
pebbles. I was happy that I wore the Z-Trail today. In the
end, I did about 10 miles and felt super. For marathon
training, I will run with the faster members of the group in
the weekends to come. It will do me good to be pushed a little.
[I found it great lifting weights _after_ the run. For one thing,
water was used up and my hands did not sweat much and the
grip felt ridiculously strong. Swinging a 40kg kettlebell with
one single hand was fantastic.]
