Remember I wrote about my 10K on Sunday? I didn’t mention my guardian angel.
We had done a trial run of the race route the week before the race. Towards the end of the race is a small hill, nothing terrible, but it’s at the end when I’m tired and feeling kind of weak. When we did the trial run I was running up that hill and I noticed a man running at my pace. We passed each other back and forth a bit, and chatted about how we’re almost done, and then we finished the route together. I had never seen him before, and our training group has been together since August.
The day of the race I was running up the really long hill between miles 3 and 4, and my legs were feeling heavy. I was trying to go various places in my head to keep me going. Then I noticed the same man running next to me. Again, we passed each other a few times and chatted about the hill and how it’s almost over. When we reached the top of the hill I didn’t see him again. Until that last little hill, where I had seen him the first time. There he was again during the race. This time I asked him his name, and he said, “Ed.” He said he knew my name because he heard someone shout it out during the race. We finished the race together, crossed the finish line at the same time, and I gave him a high five. Then he disappeared.
A bunch of us from the training group hung out for a while, eating the free food, listening to the music and the awards ceremony. I asked the others if they knew anyone in the group named Ed, and I described him and said I had only seen him twice, at the trial run and at the race. No one could say they knew him or had ever seen him.
When I got home I checked the race results, and there he was right under me. Turns out he is 63 years old and lives in the next town. That night we had a party at the Mexican restaurant and I asked around again if anyone knew Ed. No one did. I was beginning to think that Ed wasn’t real, that he was my guardian angel who came to help me during difficult runs. I don’t believe in ghosts or angels, but I’m willing to change my mind if presented with enough evidence.
Then I checked with the coach. “Do you know someone named Ed?” I described him and the coach couldn’t figure out who it was. I was really started to think I had entered the twilight zone, when my coach said, “Ed Wallace!” I said, “Yes!” The coach told me that he is the husband of someone who sometimes is a pace group leader in our group, and that he joins us occasionally for runs and races.
So Ed really exists. He’s not a ghost, but I still think he’s my guardian angel.
Tags: running
November 7th, 2009 at 9:54 am
You had me spooked there for a few minutes! haha
November 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Me too! I was hearing eerie music (City of Angels maybe, although that’s more soft and lyrical than eerie).