Running With Friends at Lake Poway

Poway Lake Before My Run

I have made it a priority lately to meet new people. I find new people to be inherantly scary. That is the nature of strangers, they are strange. They have the power to change my life, and change is scary. I have spent some time just trying to "hang out" whatever that means, and it has only yielded boredom and awkwardness.

I think the easy way to get to know new people is to do something with them. I invite potential new friends to go rock climbing and running, and in this case, on my trip to Lake Poway, a potential new friend decided to go with me on a 3 mile jaunt.

I ran 5 miles yesterday so I was prepared to think of this run as a slow easy recovery run. New Friend isn't as strong of a runner as I am and asked me to take it slow at a 12:30 min/mile pace. I didn't divulge that Lake Poway is HILLY during our text exchange. She told me she would meet me at 7am to beat the heat and that she was coming from Lakeside.

I wanted to get there early because there was a beautiful morning fog that I wanted to capture drifting over the water. The mountain range was holding in the fog so I actually wasn't able to capture that on film, but I still managed to get there 15 minutes early to perform my photographic tasks. Coming from lakeside with unanticipated Friday morning traffic made her about 30 minutes late. See, if it were anything else, that wouldn't even phase me. I admit I was just a miniscule amount affected by that. I have my pre-run fueling routine hammered down. I used to eat beans for breakfast 40 minutes before I run. Now, to save on time and improve on ease of digestion, I drink a glass of water with a half cup of protein powder in it. As long as I followup after my run with another glass of protien powder water, I would have enough calories for breakfast and have a nice little low calorie recovery drink while I am at it. I prepared for a destination run by drinking my protien powder in the car on the way over and packing an bottle of water with a small cup of protien powder to mix together after my run.

I got a little hungry while I was waiting. I never waited that long to run after the protien drink before. I didn't want to run with that woozy feeling so I downed my extra protien serving before my run. That was annoying. I was running on too many calories and my stomach grew upset. I just couldn't maintain my concise routine while I was trying to meet someone.

The run itself was super fun, easy, and picturesque. I could see exactly the place where the mountain acted as a barrier for the fog in rancho bernardo. I could see the sunlight bouncing off the ultra still water, the only ripples caused by ducks and fish meandering around the water. She stopped and walked sometimes but thats okay. I was just worried that it meant I was pushing her too hard. The path was hilly. I also had to post a 15 min/mile time on Daily Mile. I was okay with going slow.

I managed to over-share. Endorphins were going everywhere and I told her the best and worst parts of my life. I shouldn't have put all of that on New Friend. I don't think I scared her off, but unfortunately, I can't tell because we were already running. I still think this will build friends quicker than if we were just milling around shopping. The only way I know if she enjoyed herself is if she asks to go running with me again sometime.

It was interesting see how someone treats running. It is so outside of my worldview to see someone who doesn't want to put more exercise into their life because it might interfere with this one. I always just try to pile it on and hope I get strong enough along the way to handle it all.