Getting Chased Around the Lake...

***Anna's Story***
4:30am wakeup call for my last lake loop (9.3 miles) of Seattle training. Pulled into the parking lot to meet my running buddy at 5:33. I was greeted by two empty cars in an otherwise deserted parking lot- ah, another pair of runners had discovered our 'secret' meeting spot. I was at least grateful to see I wasn't the only one running slightly behind for our 5:30 meeting time. So I kick back and relax a bit, expecting James to pull up at any moment. 10 minutes go by, then 20. No response from text messages to James. RATS!!! James had overslept and since I'd left my ipod at home, was going to be doomed to a hot, lonely, and silent 9 mile loop. Oh well!! I started off around the lake.

***James' Story***
James pulls into the parking lot at exactly 5:30, anxious to be on time so as not to leave me waiting alone in a deserted parking lot. He sees my empty car and panics- thinking our meet-up time must have been 5am and he missed me. But if he hurried he might be able to catch up. He races down to the lake, engages in a quick logic game guessing which direction I'd gone, and raced to catch me. No matter James was still adjusting to running training again and hadn't run a full loop for awhile- he ran the entire thing, sacrificing water stops to catch me. After an entire loop at record pace for James, discouraged he'd never caught me, he headed back to the parking lot- only to discover his car, my actual car, and the car he'd mistaken for mine 2 hours earlier. Reality sets in.... UH OH!!

***Anna and James' Worlds Collide***
Gratefully just finishing the last mile of my hot, lonely lake loop- I begin to see a familiar figure approach. James?? Yep! He told me the story that explained how he'd been attempting to chase me around the lake for the last 2 hours before realizing what had happened. We got a good laugh out of that and enjoyed a very slow mile walk together back to our cars, trying to cram our planned 9 miles of conversation into just 1. (Because the talk is really the most important part anyway!) :-)

***Story of the Mystery Car***
So what of this empty car parked between us that created so much confusion? According to the parking citation left on the windshield, the car had been parked there for several days. Hmm... there was no Law and Order theme music playing in background, so we decided against checking the trunk for bodies. Either that person figured it was a good long term parking spot, or they really are setting a record for the most number of continuous lake loops. I guess we'll never know....