Social Butterfly and Friends Galore

Well, I must say I was quite the social butterfly today. This is not the norm for me despite the fact that I know I seem very sociable and outgoing. Inwardly, I'm an introvert, through and through, which is quite the dichotomy because, outwardly I do talk quite a bit and I make a lot of jokes. (correction -  not jokes, I make sarcastic comments. I suppose there's a big difference. I've done it since I was a child, its more of a tick really.) So who knows, maybe I can be both. Feel like and introvert but also be a bit of an extrovert.

ANYway, today was my first running group! (see last post for background) We met at the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire (Dun Leary, as reminder) at 10 am. The first guy, Keith (30s) showed up and we chatted for a moment. He was very nice and reminded me SO much of our good friend Bill from the program at Seattle University. Kind of shy but you could tell he was very intelligent and sharp-witted. Then another guy John (30s), (who had RSVP'd on the website) came down just to say he wasn't going to be able to make it on the run, due to an injury, but wanted to introduce himself for next time. SO nice! But, if you're not running with us, you're dead to us. So, we promptly shunned him. I'm kidding. He stayed to chat for a bit and was a nice guy.
Then Clare (47) came and she looks like a marathoner. Full on running-get-up and looks extremely fit. Well, turns out, (she is incredibly fit) but she's only been running for 18 months. She's a fantastic runner though and lead the pack the entire time. Then Robert arrived (late 40s), very nice guy and very humble (I'll get to him in a moment) and finally Karen (30s). Karen was super sweet and we got to talk the majority of the run. Karen became my running partner as we were plainly the slowest, compared to Clare, Keith and Robert, all of whom stayed stayed steadily out in front of us.
Well, we decided to run back to the West Pier (which is where our house is - ie: where I just ran from...great). So, we ran to the West Pier (<1 mile), down the West Pier and back (1.92 miles) and back to the East Pier (<1 mile). In all, it worked out to just over 3.5 miles. (but add my original 1 mile to get to the run, and 1 mile walk to get home afterward and I completed 5.5 miles (8.8K)!) Not too bad for a Saturday morning.
Karen and I stayed together the whole way and every once and awhile, Robert (who was in the Peloton out front) would come back and then continue running with us. He ran circles around everyone - but was humble as could be. Well, we found out HOW humble later on when he shared, very non-chalantly, (after being asked), that he finished the Dublin Marathon in 2 hours 18 minutes! I mean, that's top-finisher's time - not just some average-Joe running. I think you just have to run a marathon in under FOUR hours to qualify right? So he went and just shaved TWO hours off of that?! He's run the marathon length probably 15 times because he would run the full 26.2 all the time for training. Oh and he's also run across Spain. The country.
He's a Psychologist as well so we had some interesting chats given my background and Wayne's current studies. I hope he and Wayne can meet - I think they'd really get along.  He even studied, back in the day, with Wayne's present supervisor at UCD! The Irish world is getting smaller.
So, after the run, the 5 of us went to a cafe and had the coffee and pastries we earned. Next week, we're meeting again, same time, same place.

ALSO, (no, that's not all I did today...hahaha!) we met with Dick and Julie Wight's (Richard and Julia's), sort-of-Neice today! Well, she is Richard's cousin's daughter, so I'm not sure if she is a 1st cousin, once removed or a 2nd cousin. I SWEAR, no matter how many times I have this conversation about "once removed" versus "2nd cousin" I willl nevvvverrr come to a concensus about what they actually mean. Anywho, she's Richard's cousin, in some way, but now she's our friend and that's all that matters!

We met Kara, her husband Joe, and their 2 year old boy, Geordan, for coffee and had a great time. They're super duper nice and down to earth and both very funny so we liked them very much. We felt like little kids afterward (I guess we feel like little kids quite often..) - saying "I hope they'll want to be friends with us". =)