A Rise Up Story

Everyone has heard of a bed-time story...so how about a Rise Up story for a change? One that goes back to the RU roots...

It all started with an e-mail:

I'm trying to get into a little bit of a running routine, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in a trail (or road) run sometime. I can go early (like 5 am) almost any day or a bit later on Wednesday or Thursday ams and some weekend mornings. Let me know if you're interested...

It seemed like a harmless enough e-mail. Sent by a different person or landing in a more indifferent inbox, maybe nothing would have come of it.

Meanwhile, about the same time the e-mail was sent, Diving Dog Productions was having a meeting with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum about redesigning their website. Two of the three attendees of said meeting talked afterwards about running and hiking at Tuckahoe State Park.

A week or so later, the first Rise Up run took place--Landy, Joel, and Mike V. took a 5-6 mile jaunt out at Tuckahoe State Park. And that spilled into the first REAL (as in way early) Rise Up runs, with Landy and Mike meeting and running through Easton's dark streets.

I recall meeting Landy and Joel at 5 a.m. on Easter Sunday for a cold stroll around town and thinking how awesome it was to have three fathers of young kids meeting to run before their families woke up to find eggs.

We've had 3:30 a.m. starts (as well as the much easier 3:40's :); we've run to St. Michaels; we've taken interstate road trips to run Delaware trails; we've added members and had a streak of 5 runners meeting at 5 a.m.!; we've completed the first Trans Tred Avon run on record. We've added two new baby girls to the family ranks. And recently, we've had runners dealing with injuries.

But mostly, when we can, we meet in the mornings and run. It's pretty simple. And pretty remarkable. I've never been involved in anything quite like it.

And one more thing, while you're reading: we've had birthdays :) I was able to sneak my 36th birthday by folks, almost. Landy will have no such luck. July 08, our pal Landy flips the biological clock to 36 himself. You can tell he's getting older by the gray on his head becoming more prominent (which is much different than Joel's ;) Happy birthday, big guy, I am quite certain we'll have you back out here before you realize it!

So we live, we get older, we celebrate, we expand our families, we get to know each other better, we run races, we try new things, and when we're able, we run. Pretty simple. And pretty remarkable. It's good to Rise Up...oh yeah, and we drink a fair amount of coffee :)