Saying Goodbye To Running Buddies
When your training partner relocates, how can you move on without your buddy?
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In just two short weeks, my mornings will look a lot different. One of my good friends—and my primary running buddy—is moving four hours south of Washington DC. I am thrilled for her. This move represents a dream job for her husband and she will be closer to her family. However I am devastated for myself. And I’m not exaggerating.
When Julie first emailed me in December of 2013, she shared that she had found me through my membership on the Oiselle team and then began reading my blog. She read enough about me to figure out that we were training for the same race and ran at about the same pace. She took a chance contacting me to see if I wanted to meet up for a run. I was game. That began the start of a wonderful friendship.
Since that first run in January of 2014, Julie and I have probably run over 1000 miles side by side. We regularly ran together two or three times per week and have raced together more times than I can count over the past year and a half. It’s funny how over the course of miles, you start to share your lives. When Julie and I first started running together, I was planning my wedding. The weekend she moves away, I’ll be celebrating our first anniversary. We’ve chatted our way through the various ups and downs that happen in life. We’ve supported each other both on the run and in our personal lives.
Related: Why Running With A Buddy Is Awesome
It is a beautiful thing to find a running buddy where everything falls into place. Julie and I live only a mile and a half from each other, so we always met at a park between our houses before running. We have a morning routine that while others might find odd, works for us: we text in the morning while we are getting ready (usually from our bathrooms where we’re pulling ourselves together). Using this system, there has only been one morning (out of hundreds) where one of us didn’t answer that first morning text. Just one.
I’m a military brat who went to three high schools in two states. I’m used to moving and used to people moving away. I’m not quite sure why I’m taking Julie’s move so hard. I’m lucky in that I have other amazing friends (Hi, Mar!) who love to run and who will gladly help me deal with the loss of my buddy. I’m also lucky in that I know that just because Julie is moving a few states away, we will still be running buddies. It will just be a little bit different.