Do you have your exit buddy?

Kudo's to "The Mom" who ran the marathon when her sextuplets were only 1 year old...  I think that's amazing.  I was reading the interview today about her and something she said really spoke to me.  She talked a lot in her interview about things that would speak to a mother of three.  Never ending laundry, sticking to a routine and the help of a supportive family are some of the high points, but still no, what I think that she said that was most important to me was this,

"I'd literally throw my running shoes on and my friend and I would run for like, 2 hours."  

Her friend ran with her every night.  I think there is SO much to be said about the support of a running buddy.  Today I tried to run without my designated "exit buddy".  I did have my ipod though with Tiger Woods in my ear, but it still sucked.  For one thing, the foot pain is definitely worse when I don't have someone to distract me on my run.  And the next thing is that 56 minutes is a friggin long time to run w/o a conversation partner.  Over the last weeks I've heard the sweetest stories from my running buddies, stemming from "How I met my husband" to "Mosquito bites on infants" to "Antibiotics on honeymoons".   I missed my running buddies today, as I headed out for 6, and only finished 5.5 miles.  It was definitely a disappointment to miss my goal, and I really believe that if I'd had my running mates (its an election year after all), it wouldn't have happened.

I'm tired of traveling.  I'm looking forward to FINALLY getting home and picking up again where I left off.  For the rest of the summer I have no plans, no travels, no nothing.  I can run the long run every weekend, and at night when my kids are in bed, I can throw on my shoes and run with my friends if I want, for like, 2 hours!