My family’s late summer and early fall schedule combines one of my favorite things — watching my kids run — with one of my least favorite things — early mornings. I’m a night owl by nature. My name is one of the great ironies of my life; it’s a time of day I rarely see by choice. These months of 8:00 a.m. practices on our county’s greenway and Saturday meets when we leave home in the dark hours of pre-dawn, however, are made not only bearable but enjoyable by the company of the other runners’ moms and the sweet friendships I’ve made.
On those weekday mornings while our kids run, the moms walk. Individual schedules vary; it’s surprising how different the mom crew might look from day to day. Sometimes there are only two or three of us but on other days we look like a small-but-nonthreatening gang.
On a typical morning I’m slow to get ready, but not on practice days. I throw on exercise clothes, wash my face, brush my teeth, and pull my hair up into a ponytail or tuck it under a cap. These ladies have only seen me once this season on a day when I washed my hair.
Absent is the polish we’ll apply later when we go home and clean up. I wonder how often we as women allow appearance and its trappings to build barriers between us. There are no filters here and it seems to free us.
Please join me today at (in)courage as we talk about seasonal friendships and my sisterhood of cross country moms!
