Sneaking Around

On Wednesdays, since I work from home, I usually do a mtn bike ride at lunch over on the other side of the mountain.
Lately I've noticed some familiar faces out there doing various things. Sadly none of the familiar faces are riding single speeds or even bikes for that matter. Most of them are out there just running. But they're running at a pretty good clip and they're out there and they're training.
As I ride up behind them or as we are heading towards each other, we stare with a look of uncertainty until we realize that we know each other or that we've seen each other around somewhere.
Aha! I always say to them, if it's our first meeting. And we each call out the other's name or say something like hi "lulu's mom" and laugh as we pass by.
They are the mom's of kids who go to my kid's school.
Sometimes they'll point at me in an accusatory way like they've just discovered me cheating on someone.
And in a sense we are - all of us, sneaking away from our daily lives of work and kids and husbands and laundry and friends - just for an hour or two in the middle of the day. A break to be by ourselves, out there where we can breath deeply and freely and do what we love so much and feel good about it.

After a few more encounters we all settle in to the "nod" of knowing. Yes, I know you. You know me. We're both out here. It's good to see you again.
And at school, we all see each other. We stop to talk. We talk about why we're out there. What we're training for. What our favorite discipline is. How often we're out there, where we work. How we make the time, to sneak off.
It's nice. It's ours.
It's not about anyone else, but us.
It's about us and what we're doing.
Not about what our kids are doing or what our husband's are doing - those are nice things to talk about too, but not all of the time. Sometimes it's nice to talk about what you love to do on your own. The thing that defines you as a person. The thing that keeps you going as an individual so that you can have the energy and strength to do the other things.
And we like it that way. We like sneaking around in the middle of the day or before work or after dinner. And at school if we don't have time to stop and talk, we always nod and say have a good run today, or ride hard today - see you at the PTA meeting later tonight.