A Small World

We are in Gatlinburg Tenn. this week to train on the streets and hills of this beautiful Smokey Mountain's town. As we were walking through town to get a late lunch, we saw a couple running up the street and they were wearing Disney Marathon shirts. They also are here to get in some hill training before the January Disney Marathon. It was a nice surprise meeting another couple here for the same reason we were. They had traveled from Virginia, we of course from Kentucky.

It is really awesome how the net has brought people together who would have never met other wise. There are bad things about the net but the good more than out weighs the bad. We have friends from all over the country and even the world. Most of us that have chosen a healthy lifestyle often find that our friends and co-workers don't want to hear about it. We need friends that share our views about life, the net provides that.

We also need information and advice. We need reassurance that we are not insane and motivation to keep going. It's easy to get friends to go for ice cream, but ask them to go for a run/walk with you and they will look at you like you are a little short of brain cells.

We have a running club in town but we all lead separate lives and seldom mingle except for races. So it was really wonderful meeting people this far from home who shared our passion for healthy living and doing the Disney races to. We may have made more good friends today.

Another advantage of having the friend base we have is that we learn from other's mistakes. Lord knows we all make enough mistakes of our own and other's can learn from us. It's a give and take that works well for everyone. Just finding what cure to an athlete injury worked for others is wonderful.

We are thankful for all our friends and value each one for the richness of their individual personalities and how much they have enhanced our lives.

Thanks for reading.

Vacation Panda