While in NC I walked with my sisters and daughter at a Park not far from her home. It was beautiful and shady. She showed us a loop that she walks with her grandson complete with a bathroom and water station (nice). We walked and talked for about 2 miles then they were ready to head back so I split off and started my run. I went back to the loop to fill up my water bottle because it was getting hot and I'm not use to this NC humidity. We haven't had any 90 degree days yet in MD. I ran the loop then headed down the main road. It was gravel and wide enough for cars although I didn't see any. Lots of runners and bikers on the trail. I went down a long sloping hill that had a stream with a stone bridge at the bottom. Then the hill went up on the other side. Was about 2.5 miles at that point. Turned around went down the hill, over the stream then started back up the other side and just had to stop to walk and cool down a little. I heard these foot steps coming behind me and saw a gentleman about 10 yrs my senior. I asked if he was going all the way up and he replied, "why yes I am". I asked if I could join him and he said, "why yes you can". We ran together which made the hill a lot more do-able. I couldn't help notice that I was breathing a lot harder than he was. He said the local runners affectionately call this hill "power line hill" because there are power lines at the top and because they seem to run out of power trying to get to the top. When we got to the top I thanked him for his help and told him I needed to stop for a drink (I really needed to catch my breath). He thanked me too and kept trotting along. I never caught up to him again. People like him keep me going. If he can do it ... so can I. I ended up with 7 miles on my watch but only 5 of it was running. When I got back to my sisters house, I was literally dripping with sweat, clothes completely saturated and dripping. No one wanted to touch me or smell me. Quickly exited to the hotel for a shower :) | 