A couple of days before the Kaiser Half Marathon someone from my new, terra firma race club Forward Motion, a.k.a. FoMo, sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to car pool. Since I’m new to the group and am trying to meet people I jumped at the chance because that’s why I joined the team – to attend events with people instead of by myself.
On Saturday I went down to the store that sponsors the club and picked up my official team kit singlet. That was my first thrill. Sunday AM I headed out to the meeting place and much to my chagrin realized I was a couple of minutes late. Way to show up! It wasn’t really a problem, though. I found Larry and hopped into his truck and off we went.
I was going to call Julie because she was running, too but Larry had a lot of trouble finding parking and then the porta potty lines were a million miles long. Turns out I should have called because she called me from – the porta potty. We could have hung out together squeezing our knees and dancing while we waited desperately for the line to move forward. I didn’t get the message until later, though. Larry bailed on the porta potty line ’cause he’s a guy and has options so we picked an after race meeting spot and parted company.
The very best part about running a race in team kit is that there are other people in that race wearing the same thing. It was such a thrill to be passed by people in FoMo shirts early in the race and to have them slow down for a second and say hello. I told someone my job on the team was to bring up the rear and she said, “Oh I doubt that” but really, it is and I’m okay with that because just having a group to do these events with fills me with joy.
The last part of the race is an out and back where the slower people see the fast ones coming back the other way. That was the bestest part. I found one FoMo runner who had stopped for a walk break. We said Hi and then she and her friends started running again and blew past me. I saw most of the FoMo people, including Larry coming back the other way. I waved like a loon and sped up because the first one heading back was my ride and I didn’t want to make him wait any longer than necessary.
When I finished the race I found Larry who was chatting with a bunch of other FoMo runners. And there I was, in a shirt that matched, a part of the group. It was special – so special. Every first time should be so good.
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