Every once in a while I get to thinking about the time before I ever ran a half marathon. I swore for ages that I’d run one, and back in 2005 I even trained for a full. But, as novice runners are wont to do, I over-trained and hurt my knee.

There was a long time of “oh yeah, I’ll run one someday” and even more attempts at beginning to train without signing up for a race.

Then the Twitter Machine struck again. Back in 2011 I started talking about running with some lovely ladies, Sarah, Stacey, and Stephanie (who gets her own entry).

We made a deal to run the GO! St Louis half marathon in April of 2012 while still running another in the fall of 2011 to prepare for it. And we did.

There were updates in calendars and conversations via email and an “Ultimate Runner Log 2k11” that was both colorful and snark-filled.

These ladies, and my promise to them, got me through my first half marathon. And my second.

And every race after that.

And these coming races.

I’m lucky enough to be able to have another race planned on Saturday with Sarah (in fact, she’ll be here TONIGHT!!), which will be a true joy as she lives in Boston, and we don’t see one another that often.

I’m lucky enough to have CONSTANT support and commiseration even now from Stacey, even if it is through Twitter or Instagram rather than our training log.

Running buddies are the best buddies, and mile eight is for them.