286-something of a circle

Lisa:

I ran my first race this year, a 4.2 mile 4th of July run in the town I grew up in. I don’t refer to it as home. Home is very much where I live now, a sweet cottage tucked on a hillside in Oakland, CA. That is not to say that I don’t hold the place where I grew up fondly. It is a beautiful place filled with good memories including many with my friend Betsy Richards who regretfully (tragically) left this world in 1991. Betsy was one of those mysterious girls that you could only love for her quirkiness, unique interests and super creative mind. She had an ethereal way about her, a madly contagious giggle and when I was 14 I wanted to be her best of best friends. She had lots of friends without even trying. She lived out on Gurnet Point in a fishing cabin rumored to have been Daniel Webster’s. To live on Gurnet Point was to live by nature’s rhythm and more specifically by the ocean’s rhythm. No electricity meant no distractions, you had to use all of the daylight hours because the generator only ran for so long each night and then it was lights out. When I was lucky enough to spend time out on The Gurnet with Betsy we would collect seaweed, sleep out on the deck, and run around the beaches and dunes. Time always flew by when I was in Betsy’s world.

I write about Betsy today because she is why I run. When I took up marathon running in 1999 it was secretly in honor of her, remembering her beach running and realizing that she was always one to go for it. I do not have a single run where I don’t think of her. So, as I willed my legs along this past 4th of July on a muggy East Coast morning along with 800 others passing our old high school and following one of the classic Duxbury running routes around Powder Point I thought of Betsy. Just before mile 2 clicked by I found myself running next to a young girl with what appeared to be her father. She was all sinewy muscle, light on her toes with a huge smile. She was so in her element that I found myself covered in goosebumps. I said a secret little thanks to her for being such an inspiration and surged on trying my best to keep her in my sights. My running this year has been nothing to write about, as I have been focused on my new business. I managed to finish the race in 35 minutes! I was excited about running 8.19minute miles. Later, when my sister and I were looking over the online race results I noticed a name pop out of the sea of names in the 0-14 age category. Betsy Richards.

I’m fairly certain this girl’s father is Betsy’s oldest brother. I’m so glad her days of running 25 years ago lives on in more than one person.

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