I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the place where I grew up. I have always heard people from other places complain about the people in Miami and I never understood it. Now that I am living in the Midwest I am starting to see what all the complaining was about. Within minutes of us landing we headed out to get some lunch with my dear friend Sandi who picked us up from the airport. After lunch we were leaving the restaurant and I was holding my daughter and a women coming in lets the door go so it about hit my daughter and I. I was shocked, this would never happen in Kansas. In Kansas the women would not have even tried to come in to the restaurant till I was out the door and she would have held the door for me since my hands were full with a 33 pound toddler. But I forget that in Miami it is all about ME. This seems to be the big thing in big cities; you see no one gives a crap about the person next to them. Everyone seems to think they are better than everyone else and you should bow down and kiss their feet. Needless to say I never noticed this while I was growing up because it is all I ever knew and that is just how things were. And I am sure I was just as guilty as everyone else of having this mentality, I am so glad that I have changed though.
I am sure you all are now wondering what this has to do with running, well be patient I am getting to that. My sister and her husband have joined a running group called “Miami Runners Club” I wanted to go for their weekly Wednesday night run with them to spend some more time with my sister and check out the group. I was not really expecting much, I have run in Miami before and when I say hi to other runners I always get a look like ‘whatever’ coming from them. So we headed out to the meet up spot where we met up with Rony (my brother-in-law) and the Miami Runner Club. I was surprised right away when everyone greeted me kindly and we even laughed and joked a bit. Then it was time for the run, I stayed with my sister for the run and everyone kind of took off. We expected this, so that was okay, most of the runners in the group are seasoned runners and my sister is still pretty new to the sport. Needless to say I was really shocked when one of the other runners Wayne came back to check on us and then stayed and chatted with my sister and I for the rest of the run. Wayne is an Ultra Marathoner; he has already done one 50miler and is planning on doing a 100 soon, so needless to say our pace was much slower than his but he still stayed to chat. I was glad Wayne stayed with us; I really enjoyed running with him and talking about my favorite thing which is running.
When we were done with the three miles, Wayne took off at his normal fast pace to do a quick additional two miles while my sister and I went over to talk to a couple other runners from the group who had finished already. Everyone in the group was super nice and very accepting of this new person who just popped in for a run. When we left for the night I felt sad that I did not have this group in Kansas. I really enjoyed running with others and loved the fact that they all loved running as much as I do. After this I talked my husband into staying another day so that I could go on the group’s long run Saturday morning. I went out with Rony and we met the group at 6am (it gets very hot in Miami so you have to start early). There were many runners that were not at the Wednesday night run here on Saturday. Wayne’s wife Sheryl greeted Rony and I and gave us the low down on the run. Most of the group was doing 14 and since I had just run 13.1 the week before and the fact that Rony had only done 6 up to this point I decided that 8 was a good number for the day. Sheryl gave us directions and told us exactly where the the 4mile turn around would be. Then we all took off, we ran with Andy for a while then he took off at his own pace. When we got to a part in the path where we could go the wrong way, Andy who was running with Wayne and Sherryl waited to make sure we knew where to go and gave us directions again and told us where our turn around would be. He stayed with us for a little while again just to chat and make sure we knew the way. We then caught up with Tom who is back from being sick and doing a run/walk program so we ran with him for a while before we made our turnaround to head back to the car.
I have to say that I LOVE this group. The people were so nice and helpful; they were all very encouraging to me and to both my Sister and Brother-in-law. They took time out of there run to make sure we did not get lost and to just chat with us. After this run and we got cleaned up we went to The Runners High (the running store that the group is based out of) where Able (one of the group members who were out on Wednesday night) helped Laura (my sister) and Rony get some new shoes. Able took his time and watched them run in several shoes on the treadmill before he was satisfied that he fit them in the right ones. Nothing about this group was anything like what I was expecting from my new view of Miami. If you are ever in Miami I would highly recommend checking out this group and joining them for a run, you won’t regret it.
And I also have to give a shot out to Rony who did his longest run ever on Saturday with me. I am so proud of him and my sister, they both and turning in to great runners. In a few weeks they will both be running their first 10k, and at this rate I am sure a ½ marathon is in their future!
2 comments:
That sounds like a great running group! That's great that you got to get in a couple of runs with your sis while you were there...how fun!
Glad you at least had a good running experience in your former home town. i guess it goes to show, there's something special about runners...no matter where we live;-)
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