Day 2,917 —What they See— with a PICTURE OUTSIDE in the RAIN #702

I am participating in a 50K trail run tomorrow which I am suddenly looking forward to a lot, just to be out on my own with people I don’t know will be nice. I go through this phase where I don’t recognize the person that other people expect me to be. I recently read a book where this woman talked about the same thing. I am glad I am not the only one, but I cannot say that makes a huge pragmatic difference. 

I went to go pick up my bib yesterday at this bar in the city. I debated going at all, but I wanted to not have to think about it on Saturday, but it probably would have been fine. There are not that many people doing the race. 

When I got there, it took me a while to find where to pick up my bib. There was no sign, so I stood around until I asked someone who had what looked like race swag, and I was directed to the right person. 

I was about to leave when I decided that I could get one beer while I was here. Why not? I haven’t had a drink in a while and my rule right now is to not bring any home, so I got a beer and started to sit down at a table by myself. 

I was dressed in my work clothes and stuck out. The bar tender and the race people all called me, “sir;” even though, they were probably older than me. 

Two people suddenly sat down next to me. I was not expecting that anyone would join me; however, I am glad they did. There was a guy who is going to be the race director next year and a woman who is running in it tomorrow. Talking to both made me think about how many shared experiences we had, yet this was the first time I met them, but all three of us were at the same races various times over the past ten-years. We reminisced about the better Go St. Louis Marathon routes going back to 2016. The woman had a much more easy-going approach to running compared to me. She was so happy with her times and her accomplishments and all I could do was complain and apologize for not being faster and not having done more. I wonder if I do that with everything.  

I like ultra-runners because being strange is part of the gig, so nobody seems to notice the way other people do.