Lingo From A Lifetime Ago

This past summer I saw a friend who I had not seen in quite a while. Her name is Kris and I first met her in 2001 when I started teaching step classes at a local gym. We became pretty good friends, seeing each other during class and hanging out together outside of class. We both got into running at the same time and wound up doing the 2006 Chicago Marathon together. After that, we kind of drifted apart and weren't as close as we'd been before. We saw each other every now and then and got reconnected via Facebook a few years back.

Well, Kris stopped by my garage sale this past June and we talked for probably 45 minutes. We filled each other in on our lives, but probably the most of our conversation was spent talking about running. She is still running regularly and loves it very much. She's done a few more marathons after the one we did together, and has now gotten into trail running, and running l-o-n-g distance races. As we were talking, she kept using running terms that, back in the day, would have flowed out of my mouth as easily as they did hers...road race, getting my miles in, did ___ (insert a specific race name), trail running, and several other terms that have slipped my mind now. Most of those terms would make sense only to someone who is in the running culture. I was listening to her just nodding my head and asking questions or commenting on what she was saying and at the same time thinking about how different my life was now compared to then when I was living her world, so to say.

It seems like I'm fighting an uphill battle trying to get back into running! I haven't run regularly since I was pregnant with Lucy, so over five years now. I've gone through spurts where I've started a running schedule (like 2-3 days a week) but it hasn't stuck. I've either been too lazy to get out of bed early (5:30am) and run, a kid has been sick and kept me up overnight, I've been sick, or I just haven't wanted to! Some day maybe I'll get back into a good running routine and that lingo will be like second nature to me, but for now I'll take the running days that I can get and the lingo of my life now....do you have to go potty, let's go to preschool, pick up your toys.......