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

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5ksandcabernets: Social networking on the run: How I learned to untangle hair and what grape soda smells like

5ksandcabernets

Friday, February 20, 2009

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.

*********

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?

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so honored Kevin. Thanks!! I look forward to the day that we can meet in person... but at 6 a.m. in the dark on a trail? I'm not so sure.

That Sadie sounds amazing!

Talk soon about writing and hair, okay?

February 20, 2009 at 3:47 PM  
Blogger Sadie J said...

Aww shucks, Kevin. So complimentary. It was a pleasure meeting you in person. You're going to rock your marathon next weekend!

Oh, and I'm not gonna take credit for 3:38...3:39:32 was my time, but the way you wrote about it make me smile. Now I feel 'sick fast'...motivation to rock this morning's long run.

February 21, 2009 at 5:25 AM  
Blogger A Plain Observer said...

Funny that you wrote about blogging friends. I was just "talking" by email with a blog friend and discussing how we get to know so much about each other by reading their posts.

February 21, 2009 at 6:50 AM  
Blogger Lindsay said...

how cool to get to meet up with some of the random strangers we 'meet' online. i had my first blogger-run-in earlier this year myself, and i was nervous. haha.

you obviously already have the writing skills kev, hope you pursue the book idea too!

February 21, 2009 at 10:13 AM  
Blogger fraizerbaz said...

Hey, you know what? You SHOULD write a book. I suspect that it would be very entertaining, and you would have fun doing it. Go for it!

February 21, 2009 at 10:32 AM  
Blogger Billy said...

nice man...niiice. ;)

good luck with the rest of the taper.

February 22, 2009 at 8:49 PM  
Anonymous Outsourcing Philippines said...

What a virtual world! It's very different than before. Now, we could easily talk even we are far from each other... we could easily make friends as many as we can... This is because of high technology...

September 20, 2010 at 6:09 PM  

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