Neverland

My friend is moving in a couple of months. We've been running at the track together since I started running in November of 2013 and more recently, we've been running on the weekends together. (I needed to get a lot faster to keep up with her on these 8 - 12 mile runs.) She has helped me get a lot faster, and is an absolute joy to run with as the minutes turn to hours.

She's also willing to run in terrible conditions, including the rainiest day ever when we both decided to brave the track - the only ones in our group to do so. But she's super smart, too, and knows when to hold back, when to push, and when to analyze what's going on and find an answer.

As we got to know each other, we learned we had more in common than running, including our oldest sons being very young for their grade, both of our sons play instruments in school, and we have jointly raced to school on many days when we didn't leave quite on time. (This last thing is distinct from just about everyone else in the neighborhood, who arrives at school early every day.)

A few days ago, Helen commented on how my friend was going to live where Peter Pan lived. And it was then that I realized Helen had confused the mythical place of Neverland with the actual place of the Netherlands.

When Helen told me about my friend moving to where Peter Pan was from, I bit my lip and said "she might as well be".

I'm going to miss her.

Elaine