Running Friends From Yesteryears

Last Saturday morning after the AREC run and while the chiropractor was giving his lecture, I espied two people run by and I recognized them as a married couple whom I have run with a long time ago. I waved and stopped them for a little catch-up chat. I ran with Fred and Linda as members of Team Runner's High in the late 80's through 1992. Those were the best running days of our lives when we constantly set PR's, raced almost every weekend and sometimes even on both Saturday and Sunday. One race I distinctly remember was the Labor Day Mount Baldy Run to the Top. It was a treacherous course with some parts on a single track on the side of the mountain
with a steep drop-off, and the last mile was on a very rocky path only suitable for mountain goats. I was going to write about that experience at the time because getting up and down that mountain in one piece felt almost like a biblical experience. I would have started the article this way: “I have been to the top of the mountain and I have seen ...Fred (instead of The Lord). Fred was the first person I saw whom I knew just before I reached the finish line and he was on his way down (like The Lord coming down from heaven to help me up the mountain). It certainly felt like a religious experience but then again it could just have been the thin air in high altitude. Getting back down was another thing. You had to run down four miles after which you had to ride the ski lift further back down to where the parking area was. Being a bit acrophobic all I could do was look upwards while the ski lift was moving.
My memory of Linda involved the 1992 Long Beach marathon. During the middle miles and through the finish I would catch glimpses of her up ahead. Her stride was so distinct that I would recognize it anywhere even to this day. She finished barely ahead of me in around 3:28 while I finished around 3:29. She probably provided the pull for me to set my best marathon time (it was also a PR day for her).
I would see Fred and Linda every few years when I bump into them while running between Seal Beach and Long Beach and the last time they told me that they were cycling more. When I saw them again last Saturday, it had been at least three years since. Fred said he had a bicycle accident a few years back and broke three bones in his pelvis and legs. Fortunately he has fully recovered. They both still run with Team Runner's High but not as seriously as before.
I told them I wasn't not able to do marathons anymore due to my ankle problems and was just attempting to finish the half marathon. I also told them about the growth of AREC and the marathon training group.
So after a brief chit-chat they continued running on their way back home to Seal Beach. It has been nice bumping into them every few years and being able to reminisce about our glory days of running.