Touching base on the road

This morning I went for a run with a friend I hadn’t seen for a long time. As we cruised around the dirt path at Grandview Cemetery, we began to catch up with each other’s lives. We realized that we have a whole lot in common.

We talked books and writing.  Alene Nitzky has recently published Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care. In it she shares knowledge gained from many years of cancer survivorship care as a nurse and as an advocate for cancer survivors. She has devoted a great deal of time and energy to producing this guide to help cancer patients and caregivers navigate in ins and outs of diagnosis, treatment and after care.

Outside her writing life, Alene is an ultra runner who has completed the 135-mile Badwater and in the last few weeks did a 24-hour event where she clocked nearly 70 miles. Long-term, she’s gearing up to do a six day event. “It’s on my bucket list but it will take a few years to build up to it,” she said. I cannot imagine what that might be like!

So. We both like to write and we both like to run, though I have never attempted anything longer than 26.2 miles and honestly don’t think I’ll ever do that distance again. My current focus, which I shared with Alene is compiling a series of running columns into a little book I plan to call, Are You Still Running? in order to answer a question everybody asks me these days.

When we got back to my house, we shared a cup of tea and jabbered on about these things we love to do and have in common. We agreed that we are not at risk of suffering from boredom any time soon. What we’d both like is to be granted a few more hours in each day.

And soon, no matter how busy we think we are, we’ll find the time for another run and a chance to compare notes on our lives.