Where’s the peanut butter?!

Last night was the last group workout before we all go to our respective marathons. All of us have worked really hard over the summer and grown in different ways with friendships developing, new people joining (like me), people sort of transferring away (Andy got a stress fracture), and exchange students (Twin Cities Tim) showing up. It really felt like graduation before we go to college.

Peter and Julia, who I met my first night will be in Portland with me. So will…
…Aaron, who I met at the end of a ridiculously hard trail run a couple months ago when I was in my club shirt
…Tiffany, who kindly (accidentally?) invited me to a dinner for our ironman finishers a couple months ago and immediately made me feel more comfortable with all the new people)
…and Kim, a new flickr buddy!

A bunch of my core fellow runners are going to Victoria…
…Joe, who has set the competitive standard for just about everybody and who swears he’s retiring from the circuit after is 2:49:59!
…Robin, who has totally set the standard in the club for bitchin domain names
…Craig and Terry, who I consider my co-mentors in the club
…Wilson, who has run some kind of insane back-to-back marathons
…and a bunch of people I’ve only just met: Jenn, Ian, and Christian.

And…
…Jason, who hez all teh data!!!
…Chris, who has faithfully carried his pager on our Saturday morning long runs in case the Red Cross has a PR emergency
…Dan, who graciously led me through one of my first long runs when I could barely handle 10 miles at a 10 minute pace and whose positive outlook on life has been an amazing inspiration
…and Anna, who I haven’t met but I still know what she did last summer
will all be in Chicago.

And Steve, who helped me get through my first and only 20 miler - possibly the longest run I’ll ever do, is going to Milwaukee (and totally partying like he’s 19 after the race).

We all talked about our goals and I joked with the coach about how I joined four months ago saying I wanted to run a marathon in four hours and asked him whether he thought I could do it. On the run back to the store, I had the awkward coincidence of deciding to move toward the front of our pack right before realizing I desperately needed to fart (which is about the worst courtesy you can show in a group of runners). But I was forgiven because we realized some female runner none of us knew had caught up with our group and was right behind us as it happened and we mostly laughed. OK, they laughed at me, but it helped. That’s why they call me smooth operator.

It may be more true for me than a bunch of the long-time club members or veteran marathon runners, but saying goodbye last night was really sad. We’ve worked together all summer and gotten to know each other working toward shared but individual goals and after the last set of 3 mile repeats at marathon pace we said goodbye and good luck and went home on the cold fall night. I think we’re all changed and definitely know I am, but the question about where to go from here is clearer every day closer I get to October 7.