The Friendship Run

Today was the Friendship Run for Calgary Marathon.  Since I knew Coach Jenny Hadfield would be there and I also knew I wasn't going to be able to make it back to the Expo to hear her speak - I decided to pack up the girlies and their jogging stroller and head to Eau Claire for the Run.

Some of you might remember a few months back, Coach Jenny had put out a call on Twitter for someone to archive a large number of blog posts for her.  I applied for the job and got it . At the time, I pretty much thought that it was highly unlikely I would ever get to meet her in person.  Then, out of the blue, Calgary Marathon announced their speaker series and she was at the top of the list!  Suddenly I was going to get my chance!

I connected with her on Twitter yesterday to let her know I was going to be there, but it was apparent in her responses that she didn't make the connection of who I was.   I showed up at Eau Claire fairly early this morning and, once they moved us all outside for a photo opportunity, I had my chance to go over and say Hi.

She recognized that I was the one who'd written her, since I'd said I'd have the stroller...but she still hadn't figured out who I was...demonstrated by her asking me my name LOL.  I inwardly laughed and said "Cori - I did that web work for you a few months back!"   And then the lightbulb came on!  I didn't want to tie her up for too long since I knew there were plenty of other people who might want to talk to her so we took a couple of photos and made small talk about running with two babies...then I sort of snuck off to the side to give her some space. 

After that, the Running Room did a presentation of a large cheque to HAWC (the local police helicopter service) and we all filed back inside to hear John Stanton Jr. and Coach Jenny speak (and to meet the pace bunnies for tomorrow).   I'm really happy to have gotten to hear her speak there.   She is very much like how she writes.  No nonsense, clear and well thought out.   I tried to film some of it on my camera, but it didn't work out (lighting, crying babies in my stroller = not good video).  Took a couple of photos, though:

 
For some reason, I found it really funny that they would choose the bra section as a backdrop for the speakers.

After the speeches were all done,  we filed back outside to get the run underway

 

Not a great photo of the crowd...I didn't want to be the strange girl taking all of the pictures so I admit I didn't try very hard.  Anyway - the crowd was pretty big.  Even more amazing was that we all fit inside the Eau Claire Running Room!

This was the first Running Room friendship run that I have ever attended.  The only other Friendship run I had ever done was the one my TNT mentor had planned in San Francisco (ah, the lovely memories of running across the bridge with friends).   So, I hadn't really expected the crowd, nor had I anticipated the speaking.  Both were pleasant surprises.   

The distance was only supposed to be 3K, but it ended up being closer to 4.   I was running alone with the stroller so it was pretty uneventful.  I just ran when I wanted and walked when I needed to (it's no easy feat running while pushing twins!)   If I were to do one thing differently for future friendship runs, though, I would definitely bring a FRIEND!   So lonely out there.  Sure, the other runners were great and we joked around a fair bit along the way, but it would have been nice to have someone else there that I knew.   Ah well, hindsight...

Now that I have shaken out the ol' legs, I am excited and ready to run!!!  See you at the races!!!!