Does Anyone in this State Know Trail Rules?

Ok-so I'm from Colorado. A is from California. One of the things about NC that has us wondering is the absolute lack of trail etiquette here. I'm not talking I sneeze you hand me a tissue etiquette. Just a good ole fashion ON YOUR LEFT! This has been a topic of conversation on several runs. I guess this was all brought up yesterday after the woman on her bicycle said "excuse me" in a truly disgusted tone after we failed to notice her come up behind us. Somehow it was very baffling as I heard a mother on the same trail pushing a double stroller very clearly explaining this very concept to her daughter on a bike WITH TRAINING WHEELS. I guess the age difference of 50+years is what excused the former's behavior. All of this being said, one day A and I were on our run and a woman came up behind and said "on your left". A and I were so startled that it threw off both of our breathing patterns and made the rest of the interval agony. I guess you should be careful what you ask for :)

I'm really not sure what caused me to lead off with that when I should be celebrating our newest victory. Yesterday, we crossed the five minute interval threshhold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again, another rough run to start with but by the end I was as happy as I've been in a while. All in all, A had a rough day. She started off strong but her head starting getting the best of her by #2. I will throw in that we also ran at a new place with a relatively flat grade that just under a half mile circle. You can see the entire distance around the trail. We discovered quickly that you could mark our start/finish points at almost exactly one lap. I found this both good and bad for my head. It's good at some levels to know how far you have to go but can be kind of daunting at the beginning of the interval.

The first two were rough as they have been lately. I have been fighting some serious temperature issues with my body. We have really started to work our way into summer the last couple of weeks and the change in temp and humidity have started to rear their ugly heads. We have had to be conscious of timing runs for this but it still hasn't been enough. A read somewhere that it takes about two weeks for your body to acclimate to a temp change. With any luck that will mean we should be fine by next Monday----just in time for the temps to climb another 10 degrees. Gotta love the South!

By three and four my body was getting used to the exertion but I still felt like I was sweating out every drop of fluid in my body. At the end of four, A announced that was it for her. At the beginning of the run, we had decided that 6 intervals was enough for the day because we had some time issues we were working against. Frankly, I didn't really want to do anymore but I've been terrified of some serious issues going on in my head. I feel like I'm racing the devil and I don't want to lose. A handed me the watch and I took off for five. I did my lap and as I pulled up to her I could feel the energy slipping out of my body. I tried encouraging her to run one more with me so she'd finish five for the day which was still a great accomplishment. She says "no, I can't but I'll walk." The watch goes off and I hear her footfalls behind me. Go A!

I have never really ran by myself. We have definitely had training days that we weren't able to run together and did solo. This journey, though, has been both of ours. As she says, we rarely have days that we both finish on top of the world. I don't know if this is yin and yang, give and take or just plain masochism. It is good to know that she is always there on the crappy days telling me that I can make it, telling me to run downhill, park E by the side of the trail, drink some water, sing a song, make it to the next tree-then the next one-then the next one. But, after a series of days where she is the reason that I made it to the end, to have her have such a rough day as I am having a great one really sucks. I guess looking at it another way that it is good that we are like this. It means we never have to suffer alone or worry we are dragging the other down. At least we always have after the run and talking about the next run A--we are always both happy then :)