After the Dopey Challenge weekend, I proudly sported my Goofy Challenge shirt when I went to class the next day. The UCF football team and band were in the Disney parade marathon Sunday, so all the students that went saw the finishers walking, or hobbling around the park sporting their medals from the marathon and challenges. I'm a friendly person, but I don't talk to a lot of people at school. It caught me off guard when numerous people noticed my shirt and inquired if I indeed ran the marathon. The shirt was like a guy magnet! I loved every minute of it! I liked the attention for my incredible achievement, but I loved moving the conversation to running in general.
The professor that teaches the class before mine saw my shirt and asked how long it took to train for the Goofy. That's the kind of question that will totally get me to nerd out about running. I tried to contain myself although I'm not sure I succeeded. When she left the classroom, my classmates overheard that I ran a marathon the day before and they were completely fascinated by such a feat. A couple girls reminisced about struggling to finish a 5k. A guy admitted that I must be a beast. All the chatter before class was about whether anyone thought they could run a marathon. It was great! Every Monday that professor asks me if I ran a marathon over the weekend. On February 3rd hopefully I'll be able to say YES!
As I was leaving class in my Goofy shirt this guy stopped me and said he overheard my conversation about finishing Dopey. I'm pretty sure everyone in class heard it. I mean I basically broadcasted it! Anyway, his name is Gabriel and he is new to running. He has questions like how often to hydrate during a run. I found myself nerding out again talking about my love, running! It didn't seem to phase him though. Whether he was flirting never crossed my mind because I was too eager to tell him the basics of running. It's been two weeks now and after every class we talk about running. He's motivated, but it makes me a little uneasy when he mentions he wants to lose weight. I can't agree or disagree, so I just stick to advising on what I know, running. He's never done a race before, so it's exciting to know he's a race virgin. He might not be able to say that by the end of the semester. The only other person I talk about running this much with is my sister, Kim.
