Team TJ
A couple years ago I was reading Runners World on line forum about a runner that had just been diagnosed with colon cancer. I made a brief reply that I hoped things went well for him. We continued casual conversation for a few months while he went for his treatments. He later found out about TJ and the fact that I had started running because of TJ. In the summer of 2013 he contacted us and asked if we would be OK with him running a half marathon in TJ's honor, of course we agreed. After he ran that race he mailed TJ a race medal and shirt from that race. We were humbled by this and I told him we wanted to come to NW Alabama in 2014 to do that race with him. Lots of financial stumbling blocks hit us and we weren't going to be able to go to that race. Mitch and his wife secretly started a group to raise the money for us to come to the race. When we got to Alabama last October and met them we just clicked as if we had known each other forever.
Early this year we found out about a new race in Savannah and I mentioned it to Mitch. He immediately signed up for the race. We made plans for them to stay with us when they came here for the race. Well, they just left this morning to head back to Alabama. The 5 days they were here were some very fun times. Again, it feels like we have been the best of friends forever. We've toured downtown Savannah like never before, ate in restaurants we've never been to, I ate vegetarian pizza, just plain ate too much, and Connie laughed so hard at me getting smoked out and covered with campfire sparks that I just knew she would snort (she didn't snort). We literally hated to see Monday morning come when they had to leave.
Sure glad we stepped out and took a chance on a long distance friendship with some truly great people. We love y'all and can't wait to get together again!
This right here is just how our weekend went!
Running for TJ because he can't.
Wow... this makes me re-think my cynical attitude towards internet friendships... This is a great story, Robert! I'm so glad that you all had a great time together and became even better friends over those last few days. Thank you for sharing and please, if it's possible, add some pictures!
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Former Bad Ass
That is an most memorable weekend FE!
Damaris
Love it that everyone is wearing running shoes.
Hip Redux
Way cool!!
This is just awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Life is good.
That's a great recap Robert. I enjoyed reading it.
I'm sure Mitch will do a RR, but here is an after race pic. I didn't run this one due to some medical/dental fun I was having.
We did a historic downtown Savannah carriage ride. We live here and have never done one. It was very interesting! The color coordinated dress was completely random.
We toured the riverfront:
Daisy decided that Mitch was a good buddy for her too!
We even took a selfie with a horse
Wow, that is a fantastic story. I'm so glad that your families have connected, and it sounds like a great weekend!
Those are beautiful pictures.
This totally made my day, thanks for sharing! Looks like a fantastic weekend!
PRs:
5k - 22:53 (May 2015)
10k - 50:00 (unofficial; part of 20k race, March 2015); 50:33 (official; July 2016)
HM - 1:48:40 (Apr. 2015)