Content in Charlotte - FINALLY!

I went to Mexico with Garrett who happens to be one of my best friends and also my boyfriend. It was awesome. I had a blast. It was nonstop fun, relaxation, and bliss, all rolled into one.

So why was I craving to be in the know as to what was going on with all my Charlotte buddies? Usually you are not supposed to want to leave an all-inclusive vacation because you miss your life back home. Obviously, I had a blast in Mexico, but by the fifth day of vacation, I was feeling separation anxiety from the social base I have formed here in Charlotte. I even caved in to my addiction and paid 15 USD for all day internet, that was only accessible in the hotel lobby, and logged onto gchat to catch up with family and friends. I even used Skype to call Aaron because he had such a huge PR in the VA Beach Half Marathon that I could not stand to wait and not get the race recap in his own words.

Clearly, my social circle that is mainly comprised of members from the Charlotte Running Club has become a strange addiction. Upon any separation that exceeds more than one day, I begin craving the facebook logon to read all the status updates, reading the "Weekly Runner" e-newsletter, and can't help the itch for the next long run to get caught up on the latest gossip regarding area runners.

It's a good thing that all of my other friends are pretty good facebook stalkers as well. :o)

The whole point of mentioning this addiction is that while some people may think it is unhealthy to think about your life back home while on your vacation, I think it is a clear indicator that I have formed my "third" family here in Charlotte. My second family would be those people that I met at Wake Forest, who hold an especially dear place in my heart. :o)

Some people have that itch to get out into the world and move somewhere completely new, and I definitely consider myself this kind of person. I'd like to include myself in the list of friends I know that have taken that risk to move very far away from everything that they have ever known to embark on an entirely new life experience where you can build your life from scratch.

Examples:
1. Kylee just moved to Colorado to be in the West since she had never been.
2. Matt is going on a cross country van trip until he runs out of money
3. My brother Joey moved to Phoenix without a job and now loves it
4. Merry took the leap and moved to Boston!

For those that know me, I have always stated that I really would love to live in California at some point in my life, and I still see this as a dream I would like to turn to reality...but not quite yet. Obviously, I love my sister and would love to be out in the West very much, but at this point everything has finally fallen into place for me here in Charlotte. The running club has really taken off, my job is getting better, and I have friends that I can depend on. I don't want to go through the whole process of making friends and finding running buddies all over again!

It is great seeing how so many of my friends who have pounded out grueling mile repeats or long runs all together have improved dramatically over the last four months. Together we are all truly a team, dedicated to helping each other achieve in all aspects of life - running, life, job, whatever.

Keep up the good work!

kitty boi

Garrett Bullock and the Greeneville Astros

The day I posted my blog, my mom sent me a text that said "I love the idea of your blog Caitlin...but what about Garrett? I want to hear his updates!" It is an ongoing joke between Garrett and I that my mom loves him more than me because he helped her mulch the garden when he came to so ill for a visit. Once I told him about the text, he of course rubbed it in some more. :o)

Mom, this is for you then.

Garrett was notified on Saturday, June 27 that he was to report the next day in Greeneville, Tennessee, for a spot on the Greeneville Astros minor league team nestled in the TN mountains. After weeks of uncertainty and perhaps even doubt, Garrett showcased true mental tenacity as he continued to fine tune his pitching mechanics through bullpens with high school catchers, to run track workouts in the sweltering Carolina heat, and to lift weights that nearly tripled his own body mass. He did all this without even knowing what the fate would be for his baseball career, only assuming for the best: that he would get picked up by a team.

Garrett has always amazed me because he has the mental strength and endurance of that of a distance runner. He truly can use his mind to overcome any physical pain or weakness. The mind usually triumphs the body in his case. Perhaps this is what got Garrett to Greeneville, Tennessee, or maybe it was just in fate's (or God's) hands?

Regardless, he has made four relief appearances and has allowed one unearned run on four hits in 4 2/3 innings pitched. His padres both got to see him throw a perfect inning of relief last Friday night (on July 17) against Johnson City, striking out two of the men he faced. You can read his box score online since I don't know that much about it (even though I bought a book on baseball for stupid girls).

To sum it all up, he is super happy, loving baseball, and excited for what is to come.

Be sure to keep checking out the website!!!

http://greeneville.astros.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t413

Charlotte Running Club

I tend to meet people in random ways. This is how I have met most of the people who have started the Charlotte Running Club.

To understand how the Charlotte Running Club was conceived, it is important to first understand how I met most of its original founding members. Matt was the first runner in Charlotte that I met. I purposely ran the Hog Jog 5k with the sole intention of introducing myself to the guy that ran the time closest to my goal times.

At the end of the race, in the post-run-party-tent, I waited for the announcer to present award to the third place male. After he walks away with his trophy, I immediately went up to him and said, "Hey! Do you live uptown?" He kind of looked at me all crazy and was not sure I was talking to him. I said, "Hey, I'm talking to you!" And then he said "Oh, Hey! yeah, I live uptown." From there I gave him my name and cell phone number to call me so that we could link up for some runs. Luckily, I did not scare him too much because he texted me a couple days later to schedule a "running date."

About a month after meeting Matt, I got a random email in response to a Craigslist posting that I had forgotten about. Right when I moved to Charlotte in July, I posted an ad for a running buddy that could run 760-730 pace per mile for long runs. Three months later, I decided to check my email account and someone had responded! I got excited and immediately responded, and after the email exchange got longer, I found out that this strange man also worked uptown and was willing to run from work in the evenings.

Of course, I put on my safety first hat, and was genius enough to google-stalk him first before I actually agreed to meet him. It was afterwards finding his personal webpage that proved he was not a creeper when I received an email from him, stating that he had a personal website to prove he was not a stalker. Clearly, we were both thinking of the same page. I found out later that he, Aaron, had also google-stalked me and found me on the Wake Forest Sports webpage.

To say the least, I introduced Matt to Aaron, and then as the months went by, Aaron met Jay, another local runner from Run For Your Life. With this core group, Aaron was inspired to launch a running club to bring together the masses of the CLT running community into one scene.

Now, two months after the inception, we boast about forty members, two sponsors, a newsletter, a webpage, and even a logo. Together, Aaron, Jay and I have truly made some big strides of making the club into a reality with the hopes of organizing what was once a disconnected conglomeration of runners that had no central place to find out where people got together to run.

Furthermore, it has been great to be surrounded with a group of people who are truly invested in running and share the same passion as my own.

This post was practically a marathon so I better stop here. Essentially, I trust that the Charlotte Running Club will continue to grow!!

www.charlotterunningclub.org