Lizzie the dog made her running debut today. We’ve been stuck in the house because son #3 had the stomach bug. We had cabin fever. I decided to take her for a 1 mile run, drop her off, then finish the last 2 alone. Well, we missed the turn for the 1 mile loop, so we kept going. She was barely trotting, anyway. We ran 3 miles. It was so great to have a little buddy running with me. And she did a great job!
I did learn that I have to stop and walk through the mud. She almost took me down, and she’s pretty muddy underneath.
Let’s stroll through running buddy memory lane. Shall we?
I won’t post pictures of high school, don’t worry. But, I will say that running through Quincy with my high school track friends certainly ranks them as some of my best running buddies. We had fun. (Maybe I’ll unearth some pictures later and post them…)
After high school I took a sabbatical. I barely ran during my college days. Then, I got back to it and starting training for the Marine Corps Marathon during my 2nd year of teaching. Most of my running I did by myself. Daniel would join me for some of the miles, but mostly it was me running alone. I loved it. I would run past familiar faces on the trail on Saturday and they would ask, “How many miles today?” 20!
I started a little running club with the middle and high schoolers at Trinity Christian School. Mary Lawrence, one of my favorite 4th Graders, joined me as a high schooler, and we had great counselling/running sessions for a couple of years. I loved running with her.
And then… kids. I became pretty intermittent. But, when Caleb turned 6 months old, I put him in the jogging stroller and off we went! We would share a bowl of oatmeal and then run around the lake.
Pregnant again.
When Isaac turned 6 months, I got a double jogger, and we became the “Red Hat Running Club”. It was so great. We all wore red hats and went for a run, always with a playground somewhere along the route. I was in terrific shape after hauling those boys up and down hills. 
This is not the jogger, but you can imagine the scene. Cuteness. They were the cutest running buddies ever.
Pregnant again!
This was probably my longest stretch of inconsistent running, because although I had a double jogger, Caleb wasn’t even 4 years old when Nathan was born. In the summer I pushed the double jogger and Caleb rode his little bike with training wheels the one mile to the pool. It’s a pretty hilly route, so I was pretty much pushing his bike too!
Again, not a picture of the double jogger (Caleb is in the single jogger) but an idea of the age at which we were at… Caleb was forced to bike at an early age!
I love this picture because it’s like Nathan is saying, “I’m awake! I win!”
My most recent running buddy, as you know, is my friend and neighbor Laurie. She’s definitely a fun person to run with. She’s a talker! We almost never run out of things to talk about, and if there’s a pause, she thinks of something else! This picture is of Laurie and I running Nathan to school. It’s almost the same route that Caleb takes to get to Keene Mill. It’s wicked hilly.
My last running buddy shout-out goes to my boys. (Again) First they joined me by being patient (mostly) when I wanted to go for a run. I guess riding in a jogging stroller for 45 minutes got boring for them sometimes. Then they branched out, found their biking legs, and started biking and I started chasing. It’s so great to live near running/biking trails because we don’t have to worry about crossing streets, and there are so many fun spots to stop and throw rocks in the streams. Not only that, but many of the fields that we need to go to for soccer or baseball (mostly baseball) are along those trails, so we try to run/bike to those as much as possible.
suburban shebear 