The Saturday Morning Run

It must be cross country season as I find myself enjoying another "Saturday Morning Run" & reminiscing about the days of old. Mom & Dad's house was on the Saturday Morning Run route, & so it often got distressing & discouraging to not just stay back at the house as I'd run past it rather than finish out back at the school. I knew the neighborhood streets so I also knew where I could cut out the course as I'd be finishing out so far behind. We never really knew it back then that I needed much more hydration than I was getting. It was commonplace for team members to bring a water bottle (such as a first generation of one of these) & have it ready for when they'd finish up. Sometimes knowing that bottle was sitting back there at the track awaiting my retrieval would be the only thing keeping me from crawling back to the safety & personal feeling of security that my loving bedroom provided me.

I didn't realize that the coaches were paying attention, enough attention to make sure that we were all getting back from being out in the streets. It was high school, after all, & not college, & we weren't yet eighteen year old legal adults. They had a responsibility to our parents that they'd return us to them safe & sound. Besides, the coaches had lived in our neighborhood, one still lives on the same street as my parents, & they know each other. Including having their kids in the same graduating class.

I didn't realize any of the this at the time. All I knew was that I was out running, or at least attempting to (jogging, perhaps? 😏), & I was lagging behind (same old story). I knew the route, the neighborhood, & that I was expected to be a part of the group, which was difficult considering my running abilities didn't match up close enough to the next runners capabilities. My training didn't help me keep up & the other teen girls would have been suffering in their own training had they, well, waited up on me.

Much was likely linked to dietary reasons, as the food I ate wasn't geared toward good workout performance; Mom didn't think of these things when composing our family meal, & desserts, even if simply popsicles (though often scoops of ice cream) were almost always a part of the equation.

Now-a-days I either run laps around where I'd leave a water bottle, or I'd head out with one of these juiced up & ready to take care of me as my run continues on long.


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