A Running Partner

Recently Hannah, a neighboring PCV, visited me for the weekend of her birthday.  We’ve been meaning to see each other for a while and while our regions are joined it’s difficult to get to one another without going through another region-just one of the many frustrations about traveling.  What might take 30 minutes in the car in the US takes easily 2+ hours (more for waiting time) in AZ.

Hannah and I are quite similar in that we both are vegetarians (she’s going vegan) and like to exercise as a means for stress release.  She’s also alone at site having lost her AZ8 sitemate 2 days after he moved in and our towns are both relatively small and less developed, although Ztown is significantly smaller.  Luckily Hannah has some great projects in the works, which led to her extending her service for an additional six months.

On our weekend together we roused from our slumber around 6:15 a.m. and asked each other “Do you still want to go?”  I easily would have gone back to sleep had she hinted she was also tired (I still haven’t fully converted to being an early morning runner if I had any other choice) but we pushed each other to get out there.  It was my first time running with anyone at site and I kept thinking about how much talk there would be about my new partner.  Although we only see a few men during our run there would unquestionably be chatter among locals just as there is whenever they see me walking with any other guest around town. There are more of them, those silly runners! They’re multiplying! She has a running friend! I imagine their expressions.

I realized a long time ago that part of me being here is simply for the locals to be exposed to Americans and as much as I fight it, I’ll always be their entertainment.  I do admit though I am looking forward to being around people who aren’t constantly talking about what I’m wearing, what I’ve bought, who I’m with, or detailing every little thing about my personal life to those around them. Some privacy is necessary for sanity, no?

I took Hannah on my longer route and I found that I protectively ran in between her and any cars or dogs.  While I knew the dogs knew me they were a bit thrown off by the new face.  It was a good run, both days and I was a bit sad after my next solo run when I found myself bored, yet again with the landscape and same old, same old.  Luckily Hannah and I have planned another get together in October when I’ll go to her site and she’ll lead me through her routes.  I never thought I’d enjoy a running partner as I always enjoyed the independence of running alone in the States…but too much soloing as I’ve done in the past 2 years has led me to wanting much more company with most everything.

10 week countdown starts today!