TheUltraFreak: Reentry

In March of this year I finished running my 50th state marathon. It was quite an accomplishment. But as with most of my big events coming to fruition, I tend to get a little depressed about not having a new running goal to look forward to. I hated that my racing had to be put on the back burner but we had some major changes in our lives rapidly approaching.

While my husband was recovering from a broken leg, we sold our home and had to be out of it sooner than planned. My husband retired from his job and I left my job at the running store. In May we had a massive garage sale, packed and moved all our belongings ourselves 3 1/2 hours north to our 40 wooded acres.

We had already planned to build a home on our property, but we moved nearly a month earlier than planned, so the groundbreaking didn’t happen until June. We had several weeks of cutting down trees to clear the homesite, then put in the foundation. I’d like to say that all went fast and smooth, but nonetheless that part is done.

Since then we have dug trenches, run conduit and ran electricity to the homesite for the builder. We have done as much of the work we could on our own and plan to continue that way. Our builder is amazing and in 14 days he has done more work that I could have imagined or hoped for. We can see our dream home taking shape before our eyes.

After a few months of feeling sad about leaving all my friends, my job, my doctors, an wonderful hairstylist, and everything I’ve known for almost 25 years - I’ve had to start over. It’s been been a real struggle. Here’s an example. I went to a local group run up here, hoping to meet some new people. They asked at the beginning of the run if anyone was new, a few of us raised our hands. They said “welcome” and began the run. No one cared to even ask our names or where we were from or what pace we might be running. I wound up running by myself. I decided I didn’t need to drive a half hour out of my way to go to a group run where no one even talked to me. If you know me I’m not a shy person. This made me feel like back in high school. I have met two people in the group, because my husband went to high school with them and they have been great. But the rest of the group was not very welcoming. I was fortunate enough to have one lady reach out to me and ask if she could show me some of the local trails. I jumped at this chance. She and I got a long wonderfully and I can’t wait to meet up again soon.

So I’ve been sticking to the local dirt roads, running and walking by myself. Then I saw a Facebook post this past week. A local lady was trying to find new friends to walk with and started a Facebook group for it. I joined immediately, so did a lot of other people. I messaged her and asked if I could help her with the group because it was growing so rapidly and she graciously accepted. Since then she and I have been busy trying to get local ladies to come out and walk with us. I’ve gone out walking with her a few times already and dang she is a FAST walker. She walks faster than some people can run. I’ve totally enjoyed getting to know her and planning this group with her. Our first “official” walk for the group is coming up soon. Our group had grown to 75 local women. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I’ve also been walking my dogs a lot in the mornings on my street. I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of my neighbors. I kept meeting up with a lady named Toni while walking on our dirt road. She is blind and has a beautiful leader dog named Comet. It has become such a great time to walk with her that I typically just text her to say I’m headed out for a walk and ask if she’d like to join.

So here I am, on the eve of September finally feel like I’m fitting in. I’m walking and running with a few friends up here, volunteering at things like the local half Ironman and the monthly pancake breakfasts. I joined the American Legion and listen to my neighbors play music. They are wonderful musicians and they plan to teach me to play the banjo and my husband to play the mandolin over the winter. I’m embracing living on a property with no water (I mean to drink even) our neighbor lets us use his well thank goodness. Oh and did I mention we live in our 24 foot RV with our two 50 pound dogs?