Social networking on the run: How I learned to untangle hair and what grape soda smells like

I've been a social networker (blog, Facebook, Twitter) for about a year now and like most people, my virtual "friends" have stayed just that: "virtual."

I know about your lives, and you know about my life, through words on a page, 140-character tweets, or updates on Facebook. Most of my virtual buddies live in states like New York and California, with a smattering in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, D.C., Oklahoma, Oregon, Canada and Texas. So, you never expect to come into contact with any of them.

But this week, I've had the pleasure in meeting/phone conversation with two of my blogging buddies .

First, on Monday, Rachel from Single Mom Seeking, and I finally connected over the phone. Rachel blogs about what its like to be a single mother and no topic _ mommyhood, dating, sex _ is off limits. Rachel is half Jewish, half Irish Catholic, which makes her daughter half black, half jewish, and half Irish Catholic. My kid is also interracial, so Rachel and I sometimes talk/blog about what we do with our kids' hair. (Those kids dont have a problem with hair. I'm the one who has a hair problem.)

Rachel is also an accomplished writer, having published a book that is the same title of her blog. And that's why we'd been exchanging voicemails. I'm thinking about writing a book and wanted to tell her what a nice book she'd written. Of all the blogs I read, Rachel probably as the biggest following. Makes me feel all important when she makes little notes in the comment section of my blog.

Somehow, in a post about vibrators and privacy settings on Facebook, Rachel worked in a line on her blog about how our phone conversation went.

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On Friday morning, I actually met up with a blogger friend in person (I guess if you meet someone, it is in person, right?) Anyway, I had blogged on Thursday about how often I get lost when I run the trails around Austin's Town Lake. Sadie, a 3:37 marathoner who lives in Austin, read my blog and fired off an email that began, "Ok...no more getting lost."

Turns out, Sadie was running a slow five miler Friday and volunteered to run with me and "show me around" the Lake. We met at 6 a.m. Friday morning, and though it was dark, I learned the tricks of the trail (there is a place in the run where it smells like Grape soda - that's what Sadie said and, yeah, I did smell some grapey-ness among the blossoms. Come to think of it, I now want to run back to that spot and order a nice bottle of wine) and I saw that there were some maps which showed you where the heck you were running. It was about 38 degrees and Sadie was even nice enough to loan me a pair of gloves.

Sadie is fast, I mean sick fast. She ran this most recent Austin Marathon and even though she treated it like a training run, she popped a 3:38. And the run culminated a week in which she would ran 70 miles. SHE DIDNT EVEN TAPER!!!!!! I've got a marathon a week from Saturday and I'm already shutting my legs down, hoping they do me right at the Cowtown Marathon. Sadie, you are strong!!

Sadie also blogged about our meeting.

Rachel and Sadie were not the first bloggers I've met/contacted. Susan, a cool runner-videographer; Ryan the crazy ultrarunner; Derek the crazy ultrarunner; Brian (sorry about the knee surgery, dude) and Richie have also had the (dis?)pleasure of meeting me.

Who's next?