R and J in the USA

A good portion of the other folks in our North Dakota run were students from the University of North Dakota. You can read about the race in our 5K section. We had a good time chatting with them before the race, running with them during the race, and hanging out with them at the post-race picnic hosted by the race sponsors.

While Julie was running, she had started the race a bit behind one of the college students and eventually passed her. They exchanged cheers and mutual encouragement to each other through the occasional leap frog. At one point, Julie could hear a conversation unfolding behind her as this perky and friendly young woman actually attracted a stranger in from the street as she ran by. Some young guy who wasn’t running the race must have seen her and decided, whatever this girl is doing, I want to be part of it. He just started running the race alongside her and started chatting her up. Julie was grinning from ear to ear hearing the getting to know you charming banter of these young twenty something’s behind her. The young man was laying on the charm pretty thick. The young woman was innocently being friendly with no seeming sense of exactly what was going on. Ah, those were the days. When you could walk around the world thinking that if a guy literally jumps into the middle of a 5K to run alongside you, you can simply think he’s just a friendly guy that wanted to say hi just to say hi.

At the post-race picnic, we joined the crew of college folk and engaged in boisterous conversation. They were as excited as could be about our 50 states tour. Alaina, the young woman who attracted the young man during the race, was especially excited. Her eyes lit up. She was filled with questions about the trip and asked, “Do you recommend it?”

“Which part?” Julie asked.

“Seeing all 50 states.”

“Heck yes!” Julie exclaimed. 

Alaina was psyched about the recommendation. Then Julie started asking Alaina questions about her life, at which point she only became that much more impressed by this sweet, friendly, engaging young woman.

“What are you studying at UND?” Julie asked.

“Aviation.”

“Awesome!” Julie replied. “Are you going to be a commercial pilot?”

“Yes!” she affirmed with genuine enthusiasm.

“What made you decide to study aviation?”

This is where Alaina’s sweet smile belied the badass underneath.

“Because I’m afraid of heights.”

YES! Now that’s how you do it, Julie was thinking.

“I don’t like being afraid of things, so I decided to learn to fly.”

There you go, ladies and gentleman. Now that’s how this little thing called “life” is done. Way to go, Alaina. Here’s to hoping, for the rest of us, we can all take a page from her book…or flight log.