Lon·gev·i·ty

I'm a bit of a vocabulary geek. I like learning new words and get kiddy when listening to someone who has a large vocabulary. Lately the word longevity has been on my mind. Dictonary.com defines longevity as: a long individual life; great duration of individual life: length of service, and tenure. My favorite definition came from Merriam Webster which defined longevity as: a long continuance: permanence, durability. I was recently looking through the race photos of a race a friend just ran and one I hope to run next year. As I was thumbing through the various shots taken of the race I saw her, not my friend, but her, "the alpine lady." Well, that's what I named her when I would see her on the running trail every morning around 5:30am. I nick-named her that because she always wore support hose under her running shorts and layered her tops in such a way that it made me think about something you might see in the Alps. It's really my weird way of seeing things than me making fun of her. Actually I think she was on to the whole idea of compression wear long before it is what it is today. Anyway there she was 16+ years later plugging away at that race. Out of curiosity I looked up her age and discovered she is 65 years old. During the years I saw her every morning I lived near and ran a particular part of the trails on Riverside Drive in Tulsa. Even though we never met we would exchange a friendly hello. As any runner knows there’s a common comradery that comes with seeing the same faces every morning. Lately I've been running a particular trail here in Houston and the same thing is happening. Those familiar faces that don't have names but you share those moments along the way. Who knows maybe they have a nick-name for me... I hope that longevity, continuance and durability will be definers in my life, not only in running but in my relationships as well.

Speaking of running it has been going VERY well!!! I got rid of that silly foot pad which seemed to be causing more issues than helping and amazingly I have had very little to NO foot pain. Praise the Lord!!! My race schedule is filling up fast for the Fall and my hopes are high that things will be back on track for seeing some long desired goals met this year.

Do you have nick-names for people you see on your running trails?